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<1 




THE RETIRED MINISTER 



HIS CLAIM 
INHERENT, FOREMOST, SUPREME 



BY 



JOSEPH B. HINGELEY 




THE ABINGDON PRESS 

NEW YORK CINCINNATI 




y 



h^"- 
P 



Copyright Privileges Relinquished in the interest of Publicity 
JOSEPH B. HINGELEY 



By transfer 
The White House. 



Price, SI. 00 net; postage, 15 cents. Address orders to the 

BOARD OF CONFERENCE CLAIMANTS 

1018 South Wabash Ave., Chicago, 111. Orders filled also by 

THE ABINGDON PRESS 

150 Fifth Ave., New York 

THE METHODIST BOOK CONCERN and its DEPOSITORIES; 

and by DENOMINATIONAL PUBLISHING HOUSES 

and BOOK DEALERS generally 



TO MY FATHER 




THE REV. EZRA HINGELEY, D.D. 

1825-1894 



triie Cl)urtl)'£S Wm for tf)e Vttttmi 

Mav ti)t Seat not be too great for tjem, nor tfje 
tDinter too colb, because of tfje eternal summer in tfjeir fjeartj;. 




JHnpacfeing 

babble 
Pag£f 



Cbe l^etireb jUinigter 
Jlisi Claim 3nl)erent, jForemosit, Supreme. 



"3 jiabe fousbt a soob fisbt, 3f babe finifiibeb mj> coursie, 
f babe kept tbe Jf aitb/* 



I^OREWOED 

The supremacy of the claim of the Veteran Preacher is 
being recognized by all the Churches. The new adjectives 
applied to the claim are significant: "Inherent/' "Foremost," 
"Supreme." 

The General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
in 1908 declared the claim of the Eetired Minister to be 

The Presbyterian Church in 1909 adopted Dr. A. T. Pier- 
son's word and declared that the claim was "jorem.ost." 

The ISTational Convention of Laymen held in Indianapolis 
in 1913 called it "the supreme claim of the Eetired Veterans." 

The Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church in ses- 
sion at Washington, D. C, on October 29, 1914, demanded 
that the 

Supreme claim should he given the Supreme Place, and 
closed their Address and Appeal to the Church as follows: 

"We pledge ourselves and, as far as we may, pledge the 
whole Church to full and loyal cooperation to bring in this 
new and better day for the Church we love and the men we 
honor." 

This book contains addresses made at the Inauguration 
Convention by men to whom the Churches have committed 
this great Cause, as well as by other leaders whose hearts are 
full of affection for Eetired Ministers and whose minds and 
hands are employed in seeing that the Veteran Clergyman 
comes to his own. 

As you read you will discover enthusiasm, optimism and 
a resolve that aged ministers of the Gospel shall not be pro- 
vided for as objects of charity; but that the laymen of the 
Churches in wliose service they have wrought, shall fulfill the 
promise of a comfortable support made to them when they 
took tlieir ordination vows, and sliall ''see tJtem tlirougli." 

We are under special obligation to distinguished leaders 
of great Cliurches, and representatives of great business cor- 
porations whose illuminating articles give breadth and inter- 
est to tliis book by informing us as to what other institutions 
are doing to provide for the faithful and aged. Especially 



6 FOREWOED 

are we indebted to the Eev. Alfred J. P. McChire. D.D., of 
the Ej^iscopal Cliiireh, the Eev. William II. Foidkes, D.D., 
of the Pres])Yteriau Church, the Rev. fSanmel Lane Loomis, 
D.D. and the Eev. W. A. Eice, D.D., of the Congregational 
Church, the Eev, J. E. Stewart, D.D., of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, South, the Eev. W. B. Matteson of the Baptist 
Church, the Eev. Henry H. Sweets of the Southern Presby- 
terian Church, the Eev. Denis Wortman, D.D. of the Ee- 
formed (Dutch) Church, the Eev. W. E. Warren. D.D., of 
the Discijiles of Christ and to the many other contributors, 
ministers and laMiien, whose labors have made this book 
possible. 

In the name of the Eetired Ministers we extend our grate- 
ful thanks to Charles Scribner's Sons, The Continent, The 
Altemus Co. and others, who j^ermit the use of copyright 
matter : and to men of large affairs like Mr. Eenner of 
the Pennsylvania Lines, Mr. Pew of the Youngstown Steel 
Company, Mr. Campbell of South Bend, Judge Oliver H. 
Horton of Chicago, and others who have rendered valuable 
service. Their willingness to share their time and labors 
in such a Cause is an indication of the hold which the retire- 
ment competency idea has upon the business world. The 
Eev. J. Clayton Youker reported the several addresses and 
assisted in the preparation of the book, and the Eev. M. E. 
Snyder. Ph.D., and the Eev. Charles E. Oaten, secretaries, 
rendered valuable and distinguished service. 

We have added chapters which have appeared in the 
columns of the ''Veteran Preacher" and in Church periodi- 
cals; also music and poetry and statistics, with the intention 
of making this book a Compendium to which the laity and 
ministry may turn for information as to the Cause of the 
Eetired Minister. 

The Abingdon Press has given to this book a printed form 
worthy of its subject matter ; for we expect that "The Eetired 
Minister" will be welcomed to the shelves of ministers' 
libraries and to the homes of Christian people. 

Joseph B. Hixgeley. 
Evanston. Illinois. 



CONTENTS 

PART I. THE CLAIM INHERENT 

CHAPTER I. THE MERITS OF THE CASE 

PAGE 

1. The Task Golden Quayle 13 

2. Paving the Last Mile Keeney 19 

3. Road of the Loving Heart Welch 27 

4. Love's Recompense Fanny Crosby ... 29 

5. A Retiring Competency and the Call 

TO Preach Birney 31 

6. A Retiring Competency and Minis- 

terial Efficiency McConnell 39 

7. Savings vs. Efficiency Van Cleve 43 

8. Debt of the Nation to the Ministry. . . . Lidstone 53 

9. The Pastor's Family Stone 61 

10. Why a Service Pension? Miller 67 

11. A Dependable Pension Campbell 79 

12. The Church's Obligation Sweets 85 

13. The Shepherd Who Watched Page 89 

14. Should Ministers Marry? Harland 103 

15. Not Charity but Justice Cooke Ill 

16. Stop! Look! Listen! Hingeley 117 



CHAPTER II. OLD AGE 

page 

1. Give Them the Flowers Now 124 

2. Some Advantages of Growing Old Thomas 125 

3. Seven Ages of a Minister Tipple 131 

4. The Senior Retired Minister 134 

5. Does the Ministry Pay? Higgins 135 

6. The Old Man and the Child Tiplady 139 

7. William's Superannuation Harris 143 



8 CO^^TEXTS 

PART II. THE CLAIM FOREMOST 

CHAPTER I. THE CHURCH'S PROGRAM 

PAGE 

1. The Foremost Claim Pierson 149 

2. The Protestant Episcopal Church McClure 151 

3. The Presbyterian Church Foulkes 165 

4. The Presbyterian Church (Southern) . . Sweets 175 

5. The Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Stewart 183 

6. The Baptist Church Matteson 195 

7. The Congregational Program Rice 205 

8. The Congregational Church Loomis 207 

9. Disciples of Christ Warren 213 

10. The Reformed (Dutch) Church Wortman 219 

11. The Methodist Episcopal Church Hingeley 225 



CHAPTER II. THE PROGRAM OF BUSINESS 

page 

1. The Pennsylvania Lines Rentier 233 

2. Railroad Pension Systems — Table Foulkes 238 

3. The Chicago & Northwestern Railroad 239 

4. Industrial Pension Systems Foulkes 240 

5. What Corporations are Doing Pew 241 

6. The First National Bank, Chicago 244 

7. Teachers' Retirement, New York City. Hartwell 247 

8. Teachers' Pension Funds — Table Foulkes 249 

9. Old-Age, Mothers' and Government 

Pensions Applegate 251 

10. Two Workmen: Likeness and Contrast 258 



CHAPTER III. POST-MORTEM DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH 

page 

1. Influence Made Immortal Warren 262 

2. Wills Norton 263 

3. "Safe" and "Sount)" Wills Remsen 274 

4. Form and Application Blank for Life 

Annuity Bonds 277 

5. Banker Oliver's Investment 279 

6. List of Annual Conference Organizations 289 



CONTENTS 
PART III. THE CLAIM SUPREME 



CHAPTER I. EPISCOPAL LEADERSHIP AND CONFERENCE 

PAGE 

1. The Bishops' Address and Appeal 295 

2. Episcopal Addresses to General Conferences 301 



3. Voices Silent but Persuasive 

4. The Episcopal Round Robin 

5. The Inauguration Conference 

6. Building on a Good Foundation Cranston . 

7. A Conquering Campaign Berry .... 

8. We Shall Win McDowell. 

9. Greetings to the Convention Anderson. 

10. Response Van Cleve 



.303 
.305 
.315 
.321 
.325 
329 
.333 
.335 



CHAPTER II. THE 1915 CAMPAIGN 



1. 

2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

6. 

7. 

8. 

9. 
10. 
11. 

12. 
13. 
14. 

15. 



16. 
17. 



History of the Campaign 

Some New Things 

Approaching a Crisis 

German Conferences 

EiN WOHLVERDIENTER LoHN 

Swedish Conferences 

VoR Gjeld til de Udtjente Predikanter 

Colored Conferences 

Cooperation — The Bishops 

Cooperation — District Superintendents 
Cooperation — Conference Organiza- 
tions 

Conference Leadership 

The Campaign Program 

The Campaign Cooperative, Intensive, 

Extensive 

Official Family — Round Robin: 

Publishing Agents 

Editors 

Corresponding Secretaries 

"Why Don't You Speak for Yourself?" 
We'll Do It! 



page 
Hingeley 339 

344 

Transue 349 

Mulfinger 351 

Loeppert 355 

Young 359 

Madsen 361 

Dean 363 

Neely 365 

Parkin 367 

Morse 369 

Slease . . 375 

Hingeley 379 

Dorian 383 

388 

389 

396 

402 

Oldham 403 



10 CONTE^^TS 

CHAPTER III. AGENCIES 

PAGE 

1. The Book Concern Mains 409 

2. The Chartered Fund Hitchcock 413 

3. Annual Conference Endowments Greenfield 415 

4. Contributions from Pastoral Charges.. Clemans 421 

5. Board of Conference Claimants Hamilton 425 

6. Veterans of the Cross Fellowship Cooper 429 

CHAPTER IV. HISTORICAL 

page 

1. Aged Pastors Must be Provided For. . . Eckman 436 

2. Veterans' Rank and Rights Restored . . Keeney 437 

3. Early Methodist Stewardship Calkins 445 

4. Cooper and Dickins Krantz 451 

5. John Street Church Johnston 455 

6. St. George's Church Hughes 461 

7. Deferred Payments Watson 467 

8. Disciplinary Provisions 470 

PART IV. THE CLAIM ILLUSTRATED 

CHAPTER I. SCRIPTURAL TREATMENT 

page 

1. Helpful Homiletic Hints Sweets 479 

2, Modern Psalms Foulkes 501 

CHAPTER II. STORY AND SONG 

page 

1. The Happy Man Collins 505 

2. Old Preacher's Soliloquy Brown 515 

3. Our Veterans Greenfield 526 

4. The Light Brigade Kipling 528 

5. Veterans! Hough 530 

6. Different Ways We Treat Them Welch 531 

7. The Circuit Preacher Townsend 533 

8. Quitting Too Soon Guardian 534 

9. Wanted — A Minister's Wife 536 

10. A Strong Church Matteson 537 

11. Miscellaneous 539 

12. Proceedings Washington Convention. . . Snyder 553 

13. A Summary Hingeley 568 

14. Music 572 

15. Index 577 



A RETIRING COMPETENCY FOR THE 
RETIRED MINISTER 



PART I 

THE CLAIM INHERENT 
UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES 



The Church's Recognition that the Right to 
a Comfortable Support Inheres in the Gospel 
Ministry, is Justified by the Character of the 
Ministry, the Demands Made on it, and the 
Service it Renders; and calls for an adequate 
Retiring Competency for the Old Age of Ministers 
of Christ. 



CHAPTER I. THE MERITS OF THE CASE 

PAGE 

1. The Task Golden QuayJe 13 

Lost I^Iagic 18 

2. Paving the Last Mile Keeney 19 

Old Age. Longfellow 26 

3. Road of the Lo\^NG Heart Welch 27 

An Old Minister. McCoy 28 

4. Lo'V'e's Recompense Fnuny Cro.shy ... 29 

5. A Retiring Competency and the Call 

TO Preach Birney 31 

A Pastor. Holland 37 

A Riper Youth 38 

A Rain of Roses. Lorrman 38 

6. A Retiring Competency ant) Minis- 

terial Efficiency McConnell 39 

7. SA^^NGS vs. Efficiency Van Cleve 43 

8. Debt of the Nation to the Ministry. . . . Lidstone 53 

9. The Pastor's Family Stone 01 

Army Chaplains 6G 

10. Why a Service Pension? Miller C7 

Requisites of a Preacher. Ken 78 

11. A Dependable Pension Camjphell 79 

12. The Church's Obligation Sweets 85 

13. The Shepherd Who Watched Page 89 

The Village Clergj-man. Goldsmith. .102 

14. Should ^Ministers Marry? Harland 103 

National Monuments. Van Dyke. . .110 

15. Not Charity but Justice Cooke Ill 

Wh}^ Don't You Speak for Yourself?. IIG 

16. Stop! Look! Listen! Hingeley 117 

Veterans of the Cross. Cooper 122 





THE TASK GOLDEN 

BISHOP 
WILLIAM A. QUAYLE, D.D., LL.D. 



It is lovely to be at the vortex of things. It is rather 
radiant to be at the center of the storm ; and I confess in the 
privacy of this presence that I fellowship with Brother Berry 
in his delight in magnitudes. 

Looking After Our Immortality 

To get hold of a thing that is big enough to get hold of 
us is magnificent. To go winking and blinking around 
about little business is not worth the winks and the blinks; 
but to get hold of a sea and tuck your fingers into its mane, 
and see the thing leap and want to be riderless, and for you 
to sit and ride it to the shore, that is worth while. It 
is worth while to be in a great Church with a great God 
steering to a great eternity; and the thing I think of pretty 
often is : Who is going to keep us to our immortality ? Who 
is going to keep us to our bigness? Who is going to look 
after our vastnesses? Who is going to tell us with insist- 
ent voice that we are sublime? Who is going to tell us that 
death does not count any, if we live a right life? W^ho is 
going to point the finger at the majesty we are and the 
majesty we are to be? Who is going to help us look after 
our immortality? 

There are many who will help us to look after our mor- 
tality: the grocer will help us, and the doctor will help us, 
and the shoe merchant will help us, and the railroad man 
will help us, and the statesman will help us, and the edu- 
cator will help us, and the college will help us; but who is 
going to help us look after the Godward? Who is going to 
help us look after our everlastingness ? Answer: The 
preacher is going to help us; he is the man that keeps tune 
with the infinite; he is the man who, though he may not 

13 




14 THE EETIRED MINISTER 

spell the best and though he may not be educated the most, 
has heard in his own heart the deathless music, and pitches 
the tune. What people need is the tune of their everlasting- 
ness. I remember so many times when people would say to 
me, "Preach on the things of the day; preach on the things 
that people are thinking about during the week" ; but I never 
did, because they thought about those things themselves and 
did not need to have me help them. But on Sunday I began 
to take up the harp of life and smite upon some of the strings 
with what little might I knew, and began to make men dream 
of deathlessness ; and then men got religion. The thing we 
are after is to get hold of our own souls; to know that life 
leads us so long a distance, that the run is so very far, so 
ver}' expeditious, and so very glorious. my heart, canst 
thou take to the race ? my heart, canst thou make the run ? 
my heart, who is going to get thee to the summit of the 
sky, and my heart, who is going to get thee back behind 
the stars, and my heart, who is going to get thee over 
where the angels stay, and my heart who is going to get 
thee where Christ walks the road every day and bringeth 
a morning to every shadowy night? AVho is going to get 
thee there ? And the answer is : The preacher is going to 
help us, and so the preacher is the most manifest majesty 
of all men. 

The Preachers 

I think of the funny men I have had preach to me, and I 
remember how they did tear the beautiful garment of 
dramatic expression into small ribbons and did not care about 
the ribbons at all; and I remember when I heard them fall 
on the "whoms" and the "whos,'' and all the ridiculosities 
of speech; yet I remember some of those men, who could not 
get it arranged whether they should say "who" or "whom," 
who brought you up until you fell on the outstretched Hand, 
and caught the foot of the cross of God. I would not say 
that I like people to be ungrammatical, but I would rather 
hear some people who are ungrammatical and divine, than 
hear other people who are grammatical and utterly human. 
The preacher that came over to me and said, "Billy, you 
belong with Jesus," that is the fellow. He was a kind of a 
farmer fellow, and he grew all crops but hair, and he wore 



w| 



THE TASK GOLDEN 15 

farmer clothes, and spoke about farming and sowing; and 
he said that there was a sower who went out to sow, and 
there was a great harvest; and everybody paid heed. And 
then he came and put his hand on my shoulder and said, 
"Billy, God wants you to be one of His farmers,^' and I came 
up the aisle of the schoolhouse, not to the chancel — there 
wasn't any — there wasn't anything but a dictionary in the 
schoolhouse, so I came up and bowed at the dictionary; and, 
me, the wind was wild that night, it was as stormy as on 
the wide sea, the storm that beat upon that prairie school- 
house; the wind had its chance, and blew like it did on the 
Sea of Galilee ; and Christ came over and said, "Boy, what do 
you want down here T' and I said, "I want Thee, Christ/' 
And He said, "I have come." 

Oh, people, there isn't anybody wh© ever drew breath, that 
knew how to draw the bow of steel and aim the arrow of 
strange words, golden and beautiful, who can use words 
beautiful enough for the preachers of God; and though they 
had small salaries and large families and few belongings and 
scant wealth, they had God. In their dreams they talked 
about God. Said an old preacher, in my hearing at a Con- 
ference, "Brother Quayle, I am so old, and have no business 
to be here; I have been superannuated for years, and I can- 
not preach; and 0," he said — and his voice was as wistful 
as a mother's calling the name of her dead daughter; if you 
have ever heard that you will never forget it — "'Brother 
Quayle, sometimes in my sleep in the night I awaken myself 
from my slumber because I dream I am preaching." 

Thanks be to God for the preachers who thought so little 
of themselves because the'y thought so much of Christ ! 
Thank God for the preachers who had not more sense than 
to go around visiting everybody, and did not know that any- 
body was lowly, did not know that there were lowly people in 
the world, but thought that there were only high people in 
the world because Christ died for them, and said to every 
one, "Brother, Christ spoke your name in my ear; and He 
said, ^He knew you all ; come on over, come on over !' " 

A Task Worth While 

Brother Cranston, I think it is perfectly beautiful to con- 
sider this last thing which we have tackled. We have tackled 



16 



THE EETIRED MINISTER 



everything we could think of, and something else. If there 
is anything we have not tackled I wonder what on earth it is. 
AYe take a collection for every sort of thing, and even for 
the folk that represent the illimitableness of the unknown 
we take a collection. Preachers take all the collections for 
everybody else, but never take a collection for themselves. 
They have been so busy caring for other people they forgot 
themselves. I think that is the greatest credential a Meth- 
odist preacher ever had : He was busy at the Task Golden. An 
old man who had whiskers long enough to anchor by put 
both hands into his whiskers and said, "Brother Quayle, I 
have been preaching sixty odd years, and for over fifty-eight 
years I never came home but a woman I loved met me at 
the door ; and now," he said, with a great gasp and sob, "no- 
body meets me at the door"; and he said, "Brother Quayle, 
I did not have enough money to pay for her funeral; but if 
I had all the money that the churches I have served owed 
me and did not pay me, I would have ten thousand dollars, 
plus." Church of the living God, we have got to be honest ; 
we have got to be square for tlie sake of ordinary virtue, but 
0, we have got to do the square thing ! 

At a certain foreign-speaking Conference I was guest 
in a certain preacher's house. I felt that it was an im- 
position; and after a moment I said, "Living is up, politi- 
cians notwithstanding to the contrary; let me go." "Xo, 
you must stay here," he said; "my wife is the daughter of a 
Methodist preacher, and she says you have to stay here." 
So I said, "What your wife says stands; I will stay," and 
soon we were talking about her father, the preacher, and 
about her mother, the preacheress, and she said this thing 
which I thought was sweet. She said that her mother was 
dying with inflammatory rheumatism, and they moved her 
from room to room downstairs, and the pain was so terrible 
she could not stay in one room long, and they moved her 
around so tenderly, and she said, "One day mother said, 
*Take me upstairs.' And the preacher said, 'Why, mother, 
sweetheart, we cannot take you upstairs; the doctor says the 
least jar might send the rheumatism to your heart.' She 
said, ^Take me upstairs.' " Women do not consider what 
the doctors say nor what the preachers say ; when they want 
to do a thing that is the thing they want to do. The father 



THE TASK GOLDEN 17 

said to the daughter, "You speak to your mother"; and the 
daughter said, "Mother, we cannot take you up"; and not any 
of them would touch her to take her up ; so, being a woman, 
she went upstairs. The husband and the daughter came tag- 
ging after and said, "Mother, you will die on the stairs"; 
and she panted away on the stairs, but never turned back — 
did a woman ever turn back when she had set her heart on 
going? Finally she got upstairs, and went into a little 
room that had only one window; and they expostulated, 
"What makes you go into the poorest room in the house?" 
And she smiled. It transpired that the next day was Sunday, 
and it transpired that that little window looked straight into 
the back of the church and through that church up to the 
pulpit, and so that when she was lying in bed, propped up 
on the pillows, and her husband came into the pulpit on Sun- 
day morning, she could see him. And she had climbed the 
stairs in jeopardy of her life that she might see her husband 
climb into the pulpit and stand behind the holy desk and 
open the Holy Book; and she lay there smiling, and the next 
day she was in the kingdom of God. 

Church of our supreme love, watch your minister climb 
into the pulpit and open the Holy Book ! Methodist 
Church, climb the stairs and watch your preacher preach, 
because, peradventure, he will open the truth of God so that 
mortality shall be swallowed up of life, and things little shall 
look large, and the glory of God shall come upon the heart. 
I think the Methodist Church is going to love its preacher 
in the pulpit out loud so he will know that somebody is 
hungry to see him and hungry to hear him and hungry to 
love him; and by and by, when he is clean tired out, will 
give him a chance to rest, and say to him, "Beloved, sit down 
and rest a while, until you get so rested up that you can climb 
the stairs yourself and land at the top in the arms of God." 

William A. Quayle. 

St. Paul, Minn. 

The Preacher's Call 

"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord 
hath anointed me to preach." — Tsa. 01. 1. 

"Unto me is this grace given that I should ^^reacli." — 
Eph. 3. 8. 



18 THE EETIEED MIXISTER 



LOST MAGIC 

The Bells of Louvain, cast a century ago by the famous molder, 
Van Den Steyn, had long since lost their sweetness, before they 
were destroyed in the ruined Belgian city. 

Sadly he shook his frosted head, 

Listening and leaning on his cane. 
"Nay, I am like the bells," he said, 

"Cast by the molder of Louvain." 

Often you've read of their mystic powers, 
Floating o'er Flanders' dull lagoons; 

How they would hold the lazy hours 
Meshed in a net of golden tunes! 

Never such bells as those were heard 

Echoing over the sluggish tide: 
Now like a storm crash, now like a bird, 

Flinging the carillons far and wide. 

There in Louvain they swing to-day. 

Up in the turrets where long they've swung; 

But the rare cunning of yore, they say. 

Somehow has dropped from the brazen tongue. 

Over them shines the same pale sky. 
Under them stretch the same lagoons; 

Out from the belfries, birdlike, fly. 
As from a nest, the same sweet tunes. 

Ever the same, and yet we know 

None are entranced these later times 

Just as the listeners long ago 

Were with the wonder of their chimes. 

Something elusive, as viewless air. 

Something we cannot understand 
Strangely has vanished of the rare 

Skill of the molder's master hand. 

So when you plead that life is still 

Full as of old with tingling joy, 
That I may hear its music thrill 

Just as I heard it when a boy, 

All I can say is: "Youth has passed; 

Master of magic falls and swells, 
Bearing away the cunning cast 

Into the molding of the bells." 




PAVING THE LAST 

MILE FOR THE 

ITINERANT 

THE REV. FREDERICK T. KEENEY, D.D. 

President Permanent Fund Commission 
Central New York Conference 



God has a care for preachers. He has a special care, I 
think, for all whom He calls to special tasks of holy service. 
It began long ago, as is shown by the provision which He 
made for the Levites. They had no land, as had the others; 
but they had what was better than land, a place in the hearts 
of the people. God cared so much for them that He counted 
the neglect of the Levite as one of the chief sins of Israel. 
When the Israelite withheld his support, God withheld His 
crops, but when he cared for the Levite, God filled his 
granaries. The provision for the Levite's need was by divine 
appointment; and to it was ever linked a promise. The 
statute ran : "The Levite and the stranger, and the fatherless, 
and the widow, which are within thy gates, shall come, and 
shall eat and be satisfied; that the Lord thy God may bless 
thee in all the work of thine hand which thou doest." 

If you would know God's richest blessing, give heart-room 
to the stranger, the fatherless, the widow, the Levite and the 
prophet. Until the Most High revokes His promise, no man 
is poorer for sharing the best he has with those who are the 
subjects of God's special care ; to this the Shunnamite woman 
and the widow of Zarephath bear testimony. 

The same truth is emphasized in the New Testament. 
Christ, the Good Shepherd, had special promises and tender 
messages for those whom He called to represent Him as 
under-shepherds of the flock. They came closer to His heart 
than did any others, and were more often in His prayers. 
They, too, had neither lands nor houses. They were to go 
forth without scrip or purse. There was need of neither, for 
Christ had provided for them a riclier legacy — the hearts of 
those to wliom they ministered. You might have thought 
them poor, but they were not. It might have seemed that they 

19 



20 THE EETIEED MIXISTER 

were having a liard time; but it was a triumpliant journey 
all the way. True, there was many a paradox. They, like 
Paul, were sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making 
many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing all things; 
unknown, and yet well known; dying, yet very much alive; 
chastened, but not killed. 

God's ministers in every century have been in this ^^apos- 
tolic succession." Xo life has more of paradoxes than that 
of the Methodist itinerant. There are the hard places, and 
there are the Mountains of Transfiguration ; there are 
days of humiliation and defeat, and days of victor}^; there 
are days when one might wish to die, and there are days when 
one might wish to live a thousand years. There are joy-days 
enough, so that I ask no one to shed tears or to give a feather's 
weight of sympathy to the Methodist itinerant until he comes 
to the last mile. Then, if you can lighten the load a bit or 
help pave the way, you are doing .a service so Christlike that 
angels well might covet the task. I speak of the last mile 
out of the fulness of an overflowing heart. I entered the 
Methodist itinerancy when I was two months and thirteen 
days old. I have lived under a parsonage roof through all 
the intervening years. Sometimes the roof has leaked, but 
more often not. Sometimes it was so low that there was 
not much room between one's head and the rafters; but 
usually it was high enough. Sometimes father's purse was so 
thin that one did not need an X-ray to see through it; but 
usually there was a ham or a spare rib hanging in the wood- 
house. Sometimes the boys used to plague me because the 
knees of my trousers were patched: and said that the reason 
lay in the fact that my father made me pray so much that 
I wore them through prematurely; but I was always sure of 
at least one pair of pants, so long as father had some old 
trousers which could be made over, and mother did not lose 
her skill with the needle. 

Father and I began preaching in 1863, when the price of 
everything was high, except the price of preaching. That 
was kept down to a strictly gold standard throughout the 
Civil "War. During the first year of father's ministry he was 
the junior preacher on a large circuit. The Conference 
Minutes for that year report the salary received by both min- 
isters as $200, with a donation of $260; but the Minutes 



PAYING THE LAST MILE 21 

do not tell how this sum was divided. Inasmuch^ however, 
as the senior minister had five children, and years of experi- 
ence, while my father had only a pair of twin baby boys, it 
is fair to assume that the junior preacher had the smaller 
share. In those days farmers were coining gold from the war 
prices, while from his meager income father was paying 
twenty dollars a ton for hay to feed his horse ; for the itiner- 
ant who did not have a good horse was always subject to 
censure. The following year the Minutes are more definite, 
and disclose the fact that father received $1G2 salary and 
a donation of $214. But he preached five years before his 
salary and donation combined reached $500 ; as did many 
another itinerant who is now, staff in hand, wearily marching 
the last mile. 

Father was a revival preacher and pastor of the old type 
who took God at His word, and who never knew that the 
fight was either long or hard until after the victory was won. 
Like many another, he could preach, exhort and pray until 
the morning, without weariness, if there was a seeking soul 
at the altar to be "prayed through.'^ During the first winter 
of his ministry he held revival services continuously for 
five months at the various appointments on the circuit, and 
preached every night, without once undressing for a night's 
rest. For mother was not strong. My twin brother and I, 
less than a year of age, were companions in sorrow as in joy. 
If one cried, the other invariably joined him in vocal sym- 
pathy. During the day mother would care for us and look 
after the house, while father prepared for the evening service 
and made necessary calls. After his return from the evening 
service late at night, mother, worn with the day's work, re- 
tired; and father secured such rest as he might while lying 
upon the couch, ready to put wood on the fire frequently, to 
keep the old parsonage warm for the babies, and to care for 
them as occasion might require. When we slept well, he slept 
also; but if either of us awoke there was sure to be a wakeful 
company of three. I once asked him : "Father, would you 
enlist in the itinerancy over again, if the years were rolled 
back and you had the chance to begin again? Would you 
leave the old homestead, where four generations of our kin- 
dred have been born, and become a Methodist minister, 
moving here and there at the will of the Bishop and the peo- 



22 THE RETIRED MIXISTER 

pie, and be glad to go, in the consciousness that God had 
called von to the ministry?'^ Then my father, four-score 
years old and helpless with paralysis, from the wheeled chair 
where he had been enthroned for five years made answer: 
"Fred, I would not wait a second to decide. I would rather 
spend my life as a Methodist minister than be a king." That 
day I realized, as I had never done before, that I had royal 
blood coursino: throuo:h mv veins. 

I grant that it is not easy for a man with a heart to 
be moved every year or two or three, as these Veterans had to 
be under the time limit; or as pastors even now have to do 
all too frequently. It isn't easy to pull the heart up by the 
roots and transplant it to new soil, to say good-by to tried old 
friends, and look strangers in the face on the first Sunday 
after Conference knowing that if you learn to love them, 
some day you must say good-by to them also and move on. 
This is not a pleasant experience for a man with a heart; 
and the minister who has not a heart had better dig ditches 
than attempt to preach. But, nevertheless, there are so 
mam^ compensations; so many good people whom the itiner- 
ant comes to know, so many hearts and homes open to take 
him in, so many precious promises, tested under a great 
variety of circumstances, that I ask no spnpathy for the 
Methodist itinerant until he comes to the last mile. It is 
then that he needs heartening, and in most cases his purse 
needs to feel the touch of silver. 

If one could always remain the pastor of one congregation 
he would have both love and coin sufficient to pave the last 
mile of the journey. He and the people would grow old 
too^ether, and his o^rav hairs and advancinof vears would come 
on so silently as scarcely to be noticeable. Those whom he 
had led to Christ would not forget him : those whom he had 
joined in matrimony would remember him ; and the children 
whom he had baptized would grow up ready to share with 
him, as long as they had aught to share with any one. But 
most men in the Methodist ranks come to retirement as the 
pastor of some little church where they have been known but 
a brief time. In their prime they may have served strong 
Churches. But the fever of haste is upon us. and the activi- 
ties of Church life are so many, that the old man finds it 
difficult to keep the pace, and he has to ask for lighter work. 



PAVING THE LAST MILE 23 

Often on the smaller charge, where the later years find him, 
he is not welcome. The church had asked the Bishop for a 
young man; and when a preacher nearing retirement was 
sent, though rich in both experience and years, it was but a 
scanty welcome that awaited him. In a year or two the 
people decide that they must have a change; and the Bishop 
is compelled to tell him that no charge wants him, and 
that nothing remains for him but retirement. It is then 
that I have seen the Veterans hurry out of the Conference 
room to hide their tears; and when their eyes were dry, I 
have known that their hearts were weeping. It is then that 
I pray God and the Church, in their pity for the preacher, 
to lighten the load and help pave the last mile of the way. 

Did you ever hear an old preacher say that he wanted to 
"die in the harness" ? I have heard it from the lips of scores. 
Do you know what he means? He means that some day he 
would like to bring a gospel message to some waiting congre- 
gation, look once more into their faces and feel the thrill of 
rapture coming back from their countenances, quickening 
his heart beat; at the close of the service pray with some 
seeker at the altar, and then lie down to sleep and wake up in 
glory. If ministers had their way there would never be a 
Eetired Preacher. But God knows that we younger men need 
these old heroes to cheer us on and pray us through and hold 
up our hands, and knowing this. He sometimes delays their 
coronation. 

Did you read that poem, inspired by the life of Amzi 
Smith, a Newark Conference pastor, who went home to glory 
after forty-three years^ service on little country charges in 
Northern New Jersey? The son of another preacher paid 
tribute to his memory in words that might be written of many 
a hero in any Conference : 

"Six hundred dollars was the most he earned 
In any year, so far as I'm aware; 
For two and forty years he lived on that, 
Or less. Riches unsearchable he preached. 
And drew this pittance for his household's needs. 
And yet he seemed to think it was enough. 
I do not know that ever he complained. 
Perhaps it was enough, for he was fed 
And clothed. His wife, the boys and girls, the horse, 
All had enough. He had his work to do, 
And did it faithfully, as unto God. 



24: THE EETIEED MINISTER 

And where he labored hungry hearts were blest, 

Sinners became good men. The village smiled 

Where Amzi Smith abode. 

As God blessed Obed-Edom and his house 

The while the ark was there, so did He bless 

The towns and fields and hamlets where this man 

Dwelt, with God's glory in his humble soul. 

God, let not that race of giants die; 
Give us more men like them, old-fashioned, brave, 
True to the truth; men that have made the Church 
Mighty, and glad, and songful in the past." 

AVlieu these noble spirits come to the last mile, we are less 
ihan men, less than Christians, less than followers of John 
AV^esley, if we do not pave it with our prayers, and with our 
love and gifts. When God calls men, and sets them apart as 
watchmen upon the walls of Zion, His call is for life. He 
wants no divided life nor service; and the Church wants no 
pastor whose one business is not to preach the gospel. If 
the minister gives himself wholly to the Church for his whole 
life, the Church is in honor bound to provide for him; not 
only during the years of his active service, but also when he 
is too old and feeble to work. Support for the last mile is as 
imperative as for the first. God might never have laid this 
honor and responsibility on the Church. He might have sent 
ravens to provide for His ministry as He did for Elijah. He 
might have sent angels to preach the unsearchable riches of 
Jesus Christ. But He knew that men were better. 

I do not plead at this time for larger salaries, although in 
many cases they are pitifully small. Most churches mean to 
be generous, and to pay their pastor according to their ability 
and the light they have. But in some places the light is ex- 
ceedingly dim. In too many cases the support promised is 
not paid. Throughout the entire denomination the defi- 
ciencies during the last fifty years total $5,000,000, and they 
have fallen upon the men who could least afford to bear them. 

AYith a given salary, a minister cannot save as much as 
other men on the same income. No matter how small his 
salary may be, he must dress neatly and well, for no church 
wishes a "seedy'^ looking pastor. He must have a larger 
library than most men in his congregation ; he must take more 
periodicals; he .must travel more extensively; he must attend 



PAYING THE LAST MILE 25 

more conventions ; he must be interested in every organization 
in his churchy and be a contributor to each one. Sometimes 
by his own generosity he must shame wealthy and stingy lay- 
men into giving. When Syracuse University was founded 
pastors who were receiving only $500 subscribed $500; and 
others on a salary of $1,000 subscribed $1,000; and they paid 
seven per cent interest until they could pay the principal. 

Often the little that the minister has saved disappears 
through poor investments before he reaches the last mile ; this 
is not strange. He does not have enough to invest to really 
learn how to invest, and often he secures his experience at the 
cost of his savings. He is honest himself and thinks that other 
peoj)le are, until he learns that much advice concerning in- 
vestments is not devoid of self-interest. The nightmare of 
a preacher's dreams, whether waking or sleeping, is to provide 
for his loved ones and himself for the last mile. 

The Church has been slow to recognize the fact that when 
the preacher comes to the last mile she should not treat him 
as a pauper but as a pensioner. She should not wound his 
spirit and break his heart by a dole of charity; but should 
count it a high honor and a joyous privilege to help make 
his last mile the brightest and the best. I am glad that we 
live at a time of enlarging vision, when the last mile of 
the itinerant's journey is appealing strongly to the Church; 
and when the men whose prayers and faith made possible 
the prosperity of the present, shall not only know that God 
has not forgotten them, but that the Church does not forget. 
The dawning of this new day for the Conference Claimant 
has been long delayed, but the sun is now up and is hastening 
toward the meridian. In the Central New York Conference 
it required twenty-four years to add $1,300 to the Permanent 
Fund for Conference Claimants. But during the last 
decade the funds have leaped from $17,000 to $200,000; and 
the slogan now is, "Three hundred thousand dollars by Octo- 
ber 1, 1915." A mighty imj^ulse was given to the movement 
four years ago when the son of one of our retired ministers 
presented the Conference with $50,000 in honor of his father 
and mother, who had spent their lives serving the smaller 
churclies of the Conference. Had the fatbor preached one 
hundred years the total salary received by him would not 
have exceeded the amount which his generous son gave in a 



26 THE EETIRED MINISTER 

single year. And, thank God, Methodism has many sons who 
are rich not only in gold but richer still in love for the 
Church, who will help pave with their gold the highway on 
which the itinerant travels his last mile. 

Methodism is rich to-day, not alone in gold, but also in 
the lives of those whom God has called into her ministry, 
and in the memories that linger, like a golden halo, about 
the lives of those whom He has promoted to the Church 
Triumphant. Xo Annual Conference is without its heroic 
Veterans, who opened the way for us younger men to come 
into the Conference and share their honors; men who built 
the churches where we preach and the parsonages where we 
live; who led our fathers and mothers to Christ, and taught 
them the alphabet of prayer. We will not forget. The 
Church will not forget. God helping us, we will free the 
itinerant's last mile from anxious care, and so pave it with 
love as to make it the best mile of the entire journey, as he 
mounts up the steeps toward the city with sure foundations. 

Syracuse, X. Y. Frederick T. Keexey. 

OLD AGE 

Hexry Wadsworth Loxgfellow 

It is too late! Oh! nothing is too late. 
Till the tired heart shall cease to palpitate, 
Cato learned Greek at eighty; Sophocles 
Wrote his grand "(Hdipus," and Simonides 
Bore off the prize of verse from his compeers, 
When each had numbered four score years; 
And Theophrastus at four score years and ten 
Had but begun his "Characters of Men." 
Chaucer at Woodstock, with the nightingales, 
At sixty wrote "The Canterbury Tales." 
Goethe, at Thelmar, toiling to the last 
Completed "Faust" when eighty years were past. 

What then! Shall we sit idly down and say. 
The night has come; it is no longer day? 
The night has not yet come; we are not quite 
Cut off from labor by the failing light; 
Something remains for us to do, or dare 
Even the oldest trees some fruit may bear; 
For age is opportunity no less 
Than youth itself, though in another dress; 
The sky is filled with stars invisible by day. 
Fast as the evening twilight fades away. 



THE ROAD OF THE LOVING 
HEART 



MILDRED WELCH 



That it was they called it, the simple, Samoan Islanders, 
who built the road for their friend, Robert Lonis Stevenson, 
"a name that brings us, as it were, a breeze blowing off the 
shores of youth/' 

The road was cut through the brush with much labor and 
toil, that, unhindered, the beloved story-teller might come and 
go between his house in the woods and the beach. 

Along that road there came at sunset all his "friendly 
helpers in a foreign isle,'' to join with him and his family in 
the simple evening worship that bound all hearts together 
beneath the peace of his roof. 

I'ame, honor, wealth, and the love of unnumbered hearts, 
followed him. He, at least, could say that life had given him 
what he asked : "That he might awake each day with morn- 
ing face and morning heart, eager to labor, eager to be happy 
if happiness should be his portion; and if the day were 
marked for sorrow, strong to endure it." 

The day came at last when the Samoan chiefs carried him 
out by the Road of the Loving Heart to the crest of the hill 
that looks ever to the restless sea, and the storm-swept reefs, 
and there they laid him to rest, and on the stone they graved 
his own sunny-hearted words : 

"Glad did I live and gladly die 
And I laid me down with a will. 
Home is the sailor, home from sea, 

And the hunter, home from the hill." 

The Road of tlie Loving Heart — how good it is that it 
was granted to one man, at least, to go home that way. 

Do we ever think of a class of men, whom we send to their 
Father's House by the Road of the Sorrowful Way? 

Men who, though lacking the special genius of Robert Louis 

27 



28 THE EETIRED MIXISTEE 

Stevenson, lack nothing of his courage, his patience, his 
sunny-hearted sacrifices. 

Instead of fame, wealth, honor, they have long years in 
destitute home mission fields, long watches by the bed of the 
sick and the side of the dying, long rides in heat of summer 
and storm of winter. Have you ever seen them — that thin- 
ning line of old ministers, their shoulders stooped, their hair 
white, their eyes dimmed, their faces marred Avith others' sor- 
rows ? 

One of them went home not long ago by the Road of the 
Sorrowful Way. When he died, many articles were written 
about him and his praises were sounded far and wide, but 
while he lived, he was in abject poverty and sometimes in 
humiliatins^ need. 

"I am sorry," he wrote, when he acknowledged the receipt 
of a pittance from the Eelief Fund, "to have caused so much 
trouble, and ere another collection comes around I will be 
where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at 
rest." 

Soon after the old Minister entered in "where beyond the 
voices there is peace." 

The days slip by and our old ministers are going home. 
We choose the path they tread. Sliall it be the Eoad of the 
Sorrowful Way, or do they enter that land where none shall 
say: "I am old," by the Eoad of the Loving Heart? 



AN OLD MIOTSTER 
Samuel McCoy 

In hours when I review that one dear life — 

The life of that one Man whom most I owe — 
And ponder whether rich or vain his strife, 

His toil repaid with bitter wage or no, 
Day hardly softened, though it be near done, 
I cry in pity. Yet the westering sun, 

With glory not of earth, lights up his face, 
And heaven hallows him as who has won 

His earthly fight, far beyond power to trace 
My helpless love; and peace rests in his eyes. 

And God's high calling is his matchless prize. 




FANNY CROSBY'S 
OFFERING 

FANNY CROSBY 

94 Years Young 



LOVE'S EECOMPEISrSE 

AN APPEAL IN BEHALF OF RETIRED MINISTERS 

There is a work of love and duty 

That devolves upon us all. 
There is a tender, pleading message, 

And its tones like music fall: 
Help our weary Veteran Preachers, 

Scatter roses o'er their way: 
Rally round them, hasten quickly — 

Not to-morrow, but to-day. 

From the well of deep affection 

Now their hearts with gladness fill. 
Do not wait their names to honor. 

Till the pulse of life is still. 
Break the box of alabaster. 

Pour its oil upon them now, 
Make their dwelling bright and happy, 

Wreathe in smiles each furrowed brow. 

They have borne the royal standard 

Of our Master and our Lord. 
From the time of early manhood 

They have preached His Holy Word. 
But their strength has lost its vigor. 

And their cheek its youthful glow; 
For the frost of age has touched them 

And their locks are white as snow. 

Watchman on the walls of Zion 

Though their feet no more will stand, 
From the top of Pisgah's mountain 

Faith beholds the promised land. 
Soon triumphant like an army 

Marching through the realms above, 
They will shout the grand old story. 

Robed in white and crowned with love. 



(Copyright 1909, by Biglow & Main.) 

29 



30 THE EETIRED MINISTER 

Fanny J. Crosby — blind, bowed with age, but yet clear of 
mind — gave expression to the following rich sentiment at her 
home in Bridgeport, Conn., on her ninety-fourth birthday: 

"As for my age, it doesn't seem to me that I am in the nineties, 
and I attribute my good health and long life to the fact that I 
never let anything trouble me, and to my implicit faith, my im- 
plicit trust in my heavenly Father's goodness. If I didn't get 
the thing I wanted to-day, well, I'd get it to-morrow; if not then, 
I realized that it wasn't good for me to have it. Everybody is 
born for something, has a talent for something, and with a little 
patience will find his or her place in the world. You will conquer 
only by love. Love is the great engine which is going to reform 
the world." 

Blind, we call her? She reverses the declaration of the 
Lord addressed to the Pharisees — she not having eyes, seeth. 

AVhat a remarkal)le life she has lived ! We cannot hope 
to have her with us long; but her philosophy of sunshine, of 
trust, of love, will abide as long as hearts are hungry and 
men seek the truth. 

Frances Ridley Havergal's question and answer give the 
larger meaning of the life of our Sweet Singer: 

"How can she sing in the dark like this? 
What is her fountain of light and bliss? 
O, her heart can see, her heart can see! 
And its sight is strong and swift and free!" 

When we planned our program in behalf of the old preach- 
ers we wrote to her, asking for a song, and were told "that she 
would be j^leased to write a hymn for so worthy a cause." "We 
assured her that such a service would be greatly appreciated, 
especially by the Retired Ministers, the widows and orphans, 
and in due time received the following letter: 

Bridgeport, Conn., August 24, 1909. 
Dear Dr. Hingeley: 

I trust you will allow me to substitute a poem for the song 
I promised you. It seemed to me that I could better present a 
plea in a poem to be read than in a song. I have written the 
same and enclose it herewith. 

Could I voice my inmost thoughts in words I am sure the 
appeal would touch every member of the Church. I pray that 
what I have written will touch many. 

Sincerely, Fanny J. CROSBy. 




A RETIRING 
COMPETENCY 

AND 

THE CALL TO PREACH 

THE REV. L. J. BIRNEY, D.D. 

Dean Boston University School of Theology 



The strongest appeal made to strong men is not that of 
the sovereignty of God, but of the dependence of God. The 
amazing extent to which God has made Himself dependent 
upon men for the consummation of His plans captures the 
loyalty of great souls. The revelation of divine dependence 
grows with every new discernment of the laws that control 
the moral elevation of life. Every point of contact between 
divine and human life reveals it. We desire to speak of one 
of the most significant of these; the point at which God 
endeavors to lift a life into the prophetic character and func- 
tion. 

The Call 

The very existence of the apostolic order, as inseparable 
from the whole plan of redemption, vividly reveals how God 
must wait upon the aid of man in seeking highest ends. He 
can make mountains and moons without him, but without him 
He cannot morally change the humblest countryside. The call- 
ing of the twelve is the symbol of a perpetual process. 

But the divine dependence is not seen best in the fact that 
He must call prophets, but rather in the countless human 
elements and influences upon which the effectiveness^ of that 
call depends. A recent writer on the call to preach says that 
one characteristic of the call to the ministry is that it is always 
effective, that everyone whom God would call to preach will 
eventually preach. That is not true. One wonders if the 
writer ever mingled closely with men. 

It would be as reasonable to say that no one ever enters 
the ministry except those really chosen of God ; a claim which 
with difficulty would win the assent of the Pew. This very 
hour there are hundreds of men, busy in trade and profession, 
whom God intended for the ministry and who would have 

31 



33 THE RETIEED MIXISTEE 

wrought mightily as prophets of the Most High. That this 
is true is witnessed by the repentant confession of many; 
though not less sad is the fact that others will be unconscious 
of it to the end of the day. For God's call to the ministry 
comes more often in the still small voice, which may be lost 
in the din of world voices, than in earthquake or fire ; and, as 
the Christian ideal becomes more dominant and universal, the 
still voice becomes more and more, and the earthquake less 
and less, the means divinely used. A very large percentage 
of the most effective propliets of our time received no irre- 
sistible call, but a quiet conviction in an open mind that life 
would mean most for God and humanity if spent in the min- 
istry. 

The Call Obscured 

Among the influences which tend to obscure the call, what 
of the meager and pitiful provision for the closing years? 
And at once we say, and with emphasis, that the young man 
to whom the call comes with clear and unmistakable convic- 
tion, wlio seeing the meager income tliat makes saving almost 
impossible, and years of probable penury at the close, and be- 
cause of that alone turns back to this present world as Demas 
did, is no better than Demas was. In him is no stuff of 
which heroes are made, and the loss is not great. We doubt 
indeed if there are many whom God has called and chosen, and 
in whose souls that call rings clear, who are turned back by 
the threatening lion of want. But whenever that does occur, 
the Church will share the guilt. For a great Church like ours 
has no moral right thus to create a purely artificial and wholly 
unnecessary hardship. It is vastly different from the hard- 
ships and the perils that face the pioneer, or the missionary to 
a savage people who are ruled by savage ideals. That kind of 
hardship is as inseparable from the process of human redemp- 
tion as was the cross. But the suffering of which we speak 
comes from those who have accepted all the vast benefits of 
the gospel truth, who do understand its message of love. It 
originates in the ingratitude and selfishness of those who have 
received that message; and it falls heavily upon the life of 
those whose feet, now weary, were once beautiful upon the 
mountains, as they brought the glad tidings of peace. The 
burden falls upon them on account of the neglect of a great 



i 



t 



THE CALL TO PREACH 33 

Church, which has power with ease to lift the last burden from 
the last years of the last man who has labored long and well 
in the great world task. The Church must share the guilt of 
the man whose unwillingness to bear the fruits of her negli- 
gence closes his eyes in disobedience to the heavenly vision. 
But the greatest loss is not among those in whom the call 
has matured to unmistakable conviction. The real mischief is 
(lone long before the call is realized, and in a far more insinu- 
ating, subtle and effective way. It is done by seriously 
prejudicing the mind of the youth of the Church against a 
calling which the Church permits to be surrounded too often 
by an air of pauperism and want. Every call to preach has a 
psychological background, upon which the call is dependent 
to an undreamed-of extent. Ninety-five per cent of those who 
have heard and heeded the call to preach spent their child- 
hood and youth in an atmosphere where the ministry was 
honored and that call not opposed. Upon that background 
God is largely dependent for His ministry. That laM^ works 
as readily in the opposite direction. The influences that tend 
to make the ministry unattractive to youth, lowering its 
dignity and strength, tend to make a mental background 
against which it is exceeding difficult for the Holy Spirit to 
place His call with power; just as the attitude of a home in 
opposition to the Church or to the Christian life creates in 
the child of the home a mental attitude through which it is 
vastly more difficult for the Spirit to bring conviction. 

Prejudicing Youth 

Among the influences that create early prejudice against the 
highest of all callings, the failure of the Church to give that 
calling a self-respecting freedom from the fear of want is by 
no means the least. I will never be able to eradicate the im- 
pression made upon my mind by the annual presentation of the 
"worn-out preachers^ cause,^' as it was then called, and by two 
or three examples of aged need, and dependence, creating as 
they did not only a sense of pity, but as in every healthy lad, a 
sense of injustice and revolt. The heroism and sacrifice called 
for in the life and work of a minister appeal to the soul of 
the normal lad. These need never be minimized. But to place 
the miiiistor in the position of a suppliant, a beggar, and a 
dependent disgusts the normal youth, and all unconsciously 



34 THE EETIEED MIXISTEK 

lays a foim elation of opposition to influences human and divine 
that would lead liini to choose that work. 

The Church of Christ has no moral ri<;ht to allow the 
greatest calling (Jod e\er j^ermits men to enter, to be com- 
promised in the minds and hearts of tlie youth of the Church 
just at the time when ideals are taking tlieir deepest root, 
when ambitions are shaping, and just at the time when the 
dignity and strength of a life work makes its strongest appeal. 
Prejudice the mind of the boy at that age and we add inex- 
pressibly to the difficulty with which the Spirit of God will 
reach him for the ministry. Not the veteran worn with the 
toil of the years, who thrills his heart like the uncertain steps 
of an old soldier, but the position of mendicancy in which the 
man who has bravely done his work is placed — that is what 
helps to close the heart of many a youth against the Spirit's 
voice. 

The Luee of Othek Calltxgs 

The dignity and importance of the ministry suffer further, 
in comparison with the substantial appeal made to the youth 
of the Church, by other callings, and the community attitude 
toward these. The teaching profession is being more and more 
placed upon a basis of ample provision for the final years, not 
as a charity but as a just compensation for service rendered 
the community. Its importance to society and its essential 
greatness are thereby attested. The ministry is far more 
fundamental to world uplift, but the present provision of the 
Church for the man who has given his life to it does not 
certify that fact to the youth of the Church. A provision 
which secures the comfort of the minister in the years when 
his strength has been spent, and secures it on a basis of self- 
respect, will more convincingly evaluate to the rising genera- 
tion the dignity of apostleship tlian any eloquence poured out 
to establish its greatness. 

One of the first duties of the Christian layman is to place 
the ministry upon a basis that will say, not in word but in sub- 
stantial fact, to every youth seeking the place in which to 
invest his life, ^^Here is a task we hold to be above every task 
in dignity of its o^m and in the significance of its results. 
If God will let you enter it. His Church will see to it that 
your every care and energy may be spent for His Kingdom 



. THE CALL TO PEEACII 35 

and not in anxious solicitation concerning the years 
ahead." 

The Mijstister's Hearthstone 

There is another word that mnst not be left unsaid. Every 
minister has sacred right to the hearthstone and the dear faces 
aronnd it. That he may come near the heart of the race, love 
and home are God^s sweet gifts to him. While no woman is 
worthy a place at the side of God's chosen prophet, who is not 
willing to suffer with him to the end, if need be, yet no man 
is worthy either to be the prophet of God, an example to the 
people, or the husband of a noble woman, who is willing to see 
her suffer. And in many a brave young man's heart there is 
at this point a moral struggle that breaks up the very deeps 
of his life. As fine and sweet a bit of unheralded heroism as 
I know is where two souls, in the face of promised worldly 
comfort and plenty in other tasks, and with examples of 
aged penury for the prophet, go out together accepting if 
need be the latter rather than lose the heavenly vision. But 
the Methodist Episcopal Church has no moral right to darken 
that sacred experience in the life of God's chosen prophet by 
the cloud of fear and apprehension for the future; no moral 
right to place in the path at that holy moment the terrific 
temptation to retreat by creating a struggle between love and 
duty. As clear and as definite as is God's call to the tAvo who 
stand thus at the altar to go forth, even at the risk of want, 
is God's call to the great and wealthy Church to whose service 
they consecrate their lives, to see to it that there shall be no 
want to fear, and that such a struggle shall be forever un- 
necessary. 

EuRAL Ministry 

The call to certain specific types of ministry, of greatest 
importance, is seriously affected by the failure of the Church 
to provide amply for the final years. The rural ministry is 
the very hope of the Church and indeed of Christian civiliza- 
tion. Three fourths of the leaders of all the great professions 
and industries were ])orn and reared in the rural sections. 
A very large percentage of the urban Cliurcli membership 
came from rural churches and received their first religious 
impressions there; and over 80 per cent of our whole JNIethodist 
membership is now in the country and the lesser cities. That 



36 THE EETIEED MIXISTEE 

field "under modern conditions and with modern methods is 
becoming increasingly attractive. It is imperative that there 
be raised np a trained rural ministry which shall volunteer 
for life work in that vast and important field. This the 
schools of theology are endeavoring to do. Eew things will 
help more effectively to create such a ministry than will the 
assurance that when work is done there shall be no wolf at 
the door. Ministerial support in the rural work must in the 
nature of the case continue to be small, and little or nothing 
can be laid by. Much of the eagerness to pass from the 
country to the city pastorate originates in the desire to pro- 
vide for the future. Better far that the Church provide for 
the future and send a host of strong, well-trained men to 
perform that most significant of tasks. 

City Problems 

This is not less true of the pioneer sections where vast 
harvest fields will wave white for the reaper in the not dis- 
tant future if the planting is done before the tares have 
choked the ready and fertile soil. Xumberless villages are 
springing out of the earth at the touch of the magic wand 
of "profit," centers of coming empires. To-day is the critical 
time which will decide the type of their coming civilization. 
To-day is the time when they should receive the indelible 
stamp of Christian ideals, which will only be given by the 
man sent of God and the Church. It is a heroic task, done 
in a noble fashion by our fathers in the faith. But the con- 
ditions that face the prophet to-day are vastly different from 
those under which our fathers toiled. It is an age which 
not only lifts the standard of comfort and respectability and 
decency far higher, but likewise an age when the purchasing 
power of the ministers' pittance is far less than it was then. 
God would call to that heroic task some of the most virile 
and stalwart youth in the Church. It will help Him beyond 
estimate, if His Church will stand with Him and pledge 
these modern pioneers that their faithful toil of to-day in 
those fields of meager remuneration will lay up for them 
treasures on earth as well as in heaven, which the Church 
will give to them in the years of rest and setting sun. All we 
have said of these two special forms of the ministry is equally 



THE CALL TO PEEACH 37 

true of the ministry whose gigantic task it is to evangelize 
the vast multitudes from foreign shores. 

Even though it were true that none whom God may call 
would hesitate because of the Church's failure to provide, 
yet the Church has no moral right to capitalize devotion to 
duty. Yonder across their early teens comes shouting and 
glad a mighty company whose faces are beautiful with hope. 
With them comes One upon whom all hopes depend. He is 
choosing as he walks with them, with voice so still they scarce 
can hear it, choosing those who are to go forth with Him 
to the conquest of the world. And as He chooses, I think 
I hear Him say to His Church in a voice that has accent of 
command, "See to it, Church of Mine, that these I choose 
may go with me in a devotion undivided, a consecration 
untormented by fears of the future, for it is because of my 
faith in my Church that I bid them ^Come with me, and 
be not anxious for to-morrow.' " 

Boston, Mass. L. J. Birney. 



A PASTOE 
Dr. John G. Holland 

He knows but Jesus Christ, the crucified. 

Ah, little recks the worldling of the worth 

Of such a man as this upon the earth! 

Who gives himself — his all — to make men wise 

In doctrines which his life exemplifies. 

The years pass on, and a great multitude 
Still find in him a character whose light 
Shines round him like a candle in the night; 
And recognize a presence so benign. 
That to the godless even it seems divine. 

He bears his people's love within his heart. 
And envies no man, whatsoe'er his part. 
His church's record grows, and grows again. 
With names of saintly women-folks and men. 
And many a worldling, many a wayward youth, 
He counts among the trophies of his trutli. 

O, happy man! There is no man like thee, 

Worn out in service of humanity. 

And dead at last, 'mid universal tears. 

Thy name a fragrance in the speaker's breath, 

And thy divine example life in death. 



38 THE EETIEED MIXISTER 

"A EIPER, MOEE TEAXSCEXDEXT YOUTH'^ 

Just sixty-two? Then trim thy light, 

And get thy jewels all reset; 
'Tis past meridian, but still bright, 
And lacks some hours of sunset yet. 
At sixty-two 
Be strong and true, 
Scour off thy rust, and shine anew, 

'Tis yet high day; thy staff resume, 

And fight fresh battles for the truth; 
For what is age but youth's full bloom, 
A riper, more transcendent youth? 
A wedge of gold 
Is never old; 
Streams broader grow as downward rolled. 

At sixty-two life is begun; 

At seventy-three begin once more; 
Fly swiftly as you near the sun, 
And brighter shine at eighty-one. 
At ninety-five. 
Should you arrive. 
Still wait on God, and work and thrive. 

Keep thy locks wet with morning dew. 

And freely let thy graces flow; 
For life well spent is ever new, 
And years anointed younger grow. 
So work away, 
Be young for aye, 
From sunset, breaking unto day. 



A EAIX OF THE EOSES 
Robert Lorrmax 

"It isn't raining rain to me. 

It's raining daffodils; 
In every dimpled drop I see 

Wild flowers on the hills. 
The clouds of gray engulf the day 

And overwhelm the town; 
It isn't raining rain to me, 

It's raining roses down. 

"It isn't raining rain to me. 

But fields of clover bloom. 
Where every buccaneering bee. 

May find a bed and room; 
A health unto the happy, 

A fig to him who frets. 
It isn't raining rain to me. 

It's raining violets." 




A RETIRING 
COMPETENCY 

AND 
MINISTERIAL EFFICIENCY 

BISHOP 
FRANCIS J. McCONNELL, D.D., LL.D. 



I was very much impressed once when I heard Dr. 
Hingeley say that he thought the emphasis on the old 
preacher as a subject for benevolence had been overdone, and 
I was very much pleased when in the Veteran Preacher he 
quoted a remark of a Bishop to the effect that he had 
never known of a Retired Minister of the Gospel starving 
to death. I am glad that the accent is being placed at 
another point. As a matter of fact, when you look up the 
history of the Church not any of them have starved to death. 
They have been pretty well taken care of, but it has not been 
done in a systematic way, nor according to a regular plan; 
and we have begun to place the accent on inherent right and 
justice under the compelling motive of gratitude. 

For myself, I am not so very much impressed when a man 
says, "We must make some kind of a retiring fund in order 
to make the proper appeal to young men.'' There is some- 
thing in it, perhaps, but if that is what young men are think- 
ing of they are not exactly of the type that have gone 
before them. I can see force in the argument that we are in 
line with the great social movement. In these days we are 
insisting more and more that organizations of all kinds shall 
prepare for and anticipate the needs of the old age of those 
who serve in the day of their strength. But it seems to me 
there is one line of argument in these days that we cannot 
sufficiently stress, important as the other lines may be, and 
that is the need of making the present ministry more effective. 

Old Age Investments 

There are some things of a very simple kind tliat, as far 
as my limited observation goes, do cut into the effectiveness 
of Methodist ministers, and one thing is the temptation to 

39 



40 THE EETIEED MIXISTER 

make some kind of an investment out of their limited sal- 
aries, that will snrely provide for old age. One picture in 
my mind here to-night is the picture of a Methodist Bishop, 
not now living, who once, when I was a good deal younger 
than I now am, came to me to consult about his finances. He 
said, "If you had any money to invest how would you go 
about it?" I was a good deal in the position of a colored 
brother who was asked to change a ten-dollar bill, who said, 
"I cannot change the bill, boss, but I thanks you for the 
compliment." I felt a good deal like that when talking to 
this venerable Bishop, and said this perfectly commonplace 
thing, "If I had money to invest I would put it in sure 
bonds, yielding four or four and a half per cent, and if I 
could get five per cent, I would take that." There is some- 
thing pathetic in the picture of that man saying, "I do not 
dare to do that. I do not care to have my wife thrown on 
the generosity of the Church when I am gone, and I have 
to take some risk; so my money is in stocks." If we could 
gather before us the Methodist ministers who have tried to 
make investments in order to care for their old age, we would 
find a great host ; and may be I am touching a tender spot 
to-night; but really this thing, insignificant as it may appear 
at first glance, does cut into the effectiveness of ministers. 
They do make investments. Some smooth man tells them 
all is right, and the first thing they know everything is gone. 
If that does not cut into the effectiveness of a Methodist 
minister I do not know what will. 

I have a book at home that tells how to promote certain 
speculative enterprises. I did not get it because I desired 
hints in that direction. It tells what classes of persons to 
send circulars to, and it groups ministers in two classes. It 
says that in some denominations the preachers receive larger 
salaries than in the others, and — I use its language — it tells 
how to get at the "easy marks." In the first group are the 
Presl)yterians and the Episcopalians, and in the second group 
are the Methodists and Baptists. They put us in the second 
class because we do not have large sums of money to invest, 
not because we are any the less eager to invest. It is appar- 
ently an insignificant thing, but, nevertheless, one of the 
best ways to increase the effectiveness of a Methodist minister 
is to give him no excuse to worry about investments. 



MINISTERIAL EFFICIENCY 41 

Giving All to the Work 

There is another duty that occurs to me, and it has nothing 
to do with the benevolent phases of the problem but only with 
the effectiveness of the present ministry, and that is the 
doing of all we can to keep the ministers from getting into 
outside enterprises, and to keep them where they will be giv- 
ing all their thought as well as their time to the service of 
the kingdom of God. Another man comes to my mind who 
graduated from an Eastern university and afterwards went 
into the ministry, and took the very largest appointments in 
a great Conference in the Central West, and was really a 
great man until he began to get interested in all manner of 
side enterprises. I remember that at one time he had man- 
aged to get together a great deal of money, and went into a 
farming enterprise, investing all his money in what Dr. 
Borden P. Bowne used to call ^'^the inhabitants of the sty." 
After he had invested all his money in them, forgetful of 
the fact of their liability to infirmities, one night they woke 
up squealing, and two or three days afterward ceased to 
squeal, and all his money and the money of several other 
preachers had gone. They were doing what the Bishop said 
he had to do — they had been taking risks. Soon things were 
made uncomfortable for him in his Conference. That man 
to-day, with a long and successful career in the pastorate 
behind him, is selling odds and ends in a Western city. I 
would not say that his worry over the future had everything 
to do with this, but it grew from that start. 

If we wish to keep men down to the right kind of preach- 
ing, let their minds have nothing to do with worry for the 
future ; and if we wish to keep men to a bold utterance, make 
it possible for them to keep these things out of mind. AVlien 
men go into the Methodist ministry they know that they will 
not receive such salaries as other men receive, and that they 
will not retire on a large pension, but if you make it sure 
that they need not worry about the future it will all come 
back in the effectiveness with which they work. A certain 
great military hero was sent to do a singularly hazardous 
piece of work. He came back alive, and somebody, anxious 
to know the thrill he had, asked what his feelings were as 
he went forward to that fearfully hazardous task. lie re- 



42 THE EETIEED MIXISTER 

plied that "the greatest feeling of satisfaction I had was 
the knowledge that in case I went down, I had the future 
arranged for, so far as my owtl private affairs were con- 
cerned, and that the government of the United States would 
care for those dependent upon me. These were the things in 
my mind as I went into that place of danger." 

MiXISTERIAL BOLDXESS 

Wendell Phillips was once asked what he thought of the 
ministry. He said, "I think the ministry is ill prepared in 
one way. The ministers ought to be so provided for that they 
will have no thought concerning financial worry. A minister 
ought to be a man for whom in that sense of the word some- 
body will provide, so he can speak the truth with the utmost 
boldness, without any fear of consequences." In these days, 
when men have to ro])uke evils and to deal faithfully with 
those committed to their care, at least this much of certainty 
ought to be in their minds, that if they will stand like 
prophets of the living God and speak forth words of prophecy, 
they need not worry concerning the future. AYe are to follow 
in John "Wesley^s footsteps and be men of one work, and if we 
lose a certain boldness and begin to care for the things of 
this life, a large ^^art of the effectiveness of the ministry 
of the present day to the present generation will be gone. 

I am glad that we are getting the emphasis off poverty and 
are ceasing to talk of the hardships of the older ministers, 
and are placing the Veterans' Cause on a systematic basis and 
getting down to the fact that what we are after all along the 
line is an effective ministry. We are beginning to get hold 
of the young because we know how much depends upon them, 
and we are training them from the start; and we try to get 
hold of the young men and to train them from the start for an 
educated ministry, and we are doing this other thing, not 
merely because of the justice of so doing, but for the prac- 
tical success of the ministry in this day of the world, and 
to make it a more effective instrument, so that Methodist 
preachers can give themselves whole-heartedly to the entire 
work to 1\diich they are sent, by being relieved of care for 
their future old age. 

Denver, Colo. Fraxcis J. McConnell. 




SAVING 

vs. 

EFFICIENCY 

THE REV. J. W. VAN CLEVE, D.D. 

Vice-President Board of Conference Claimants 



Large Salaries or Pensions. The words which form the 
title of this paper define a real and vital issue. In the matter 
of caring for Retired Ministers we are shnt np to a choice 
between two possible solutions. One is to pay the preacher 
a salary with a liberal surplus above living expenses and then 
leave him to his own devices. Whether he shall spend his 
old age in comfort or in penury is to depend wholly upon his 
own frugality and wisdom. If he fails to save his money 
and to keep it, then he is to be left to suffer the consequences 
of his neglect, precisely as other shiftless people do. This 
policy makes a fine superficial show of wisdom and justice, 
of the distinctively worldly type, but from the higher view- 
point it discloses discouraging gaps. The alternative is to 
pay the minister a fair working salary, while he is fit for work, 
and to encourage him to spend his salary for his equipment 
and development by providing a comfortable pension for 
his failing years. It is almost the reverse of the other plan 
in that it makes the future of the minister depend wholly 
upon his ministerial service. 

Combination Policy Fallacious. The time-worn policy 
of trying to combine these two into a scheme which offers 
neither sufficient savings nor sufficient Church support, and 
pieces out a little savings from a slender salary, with a little 
giving from the Church later on, cannot be accepted as a real 
solution. It is a perpetual temporizing without either a 
rational basis or an adequate result. No solution can be 
acceptable or final, which does not, in its general outlines, 
commend itself to the men who are most deeply and directly 
concerned in it as just and equal. No such conviction of 

43 



44 THE EETIRED MIXISTER 

substantial justice can ever be produced by this policy of 
patchwork. The very attempt to administer such a policy 
involves us in immediate perplexity over questions concerning 
relative economic deservings — questions that will not be 
pushed aside, but which cannot well be answered. 

The Questiox of Fkugality. Should the man who has 
neglected to save money receive for that reason a larger allow- 
ance, so that he may live as comfortably as his more frugal 
brother? If we have supplied a man with an income that 
would enable him to save, and have done this in order that 
he might save, ought he not to be required to save or be pen- 
alized for his failure so to do? Should not the frugal man 
profit by his frugality ? If they are to receive an equal allow- 
ance, shall it be large enough to provide a reasonable degree 
of comfort for the improvident man, or Just enough to afford 
a bare subsistence for the man who has lived frugally? If 
the former of these standards is adopted, then, in a way, we 
shall be paying both men twice, when one of them does not 
need it; if we adopt the latter we shall have the unedifying 
spectacle of an old Methodist preacher in want, a thing which 
we never shall be able to justify to the world. If the question 
of relative frugality and wastefulness is to be considered, how 
sliall it be determined? If a man were to ignore the needs 
of his own kin — parents, brothers, sisters — because they were 
not of his immediate household, we would hardly commend 
him for his prudence; and yet on just such prudence might 
depend the margin between a surplus and a bare balancing 
of receipts and expenditures. Sometimes a large factor in 
what passes for economy and thrift is a species of shrewd 
bargaining which at least contributes nothing to ministerial 
efficiency. Furthermore, the temptation to cross the line be- 
tween a fair bargain, and what is popularly known as a "great 
bargain" is not always resisted. Ministers with a little sur- 
plus cash have been known to take advantage of the necessities 
of the unfortunate in ways, that, while technically honest, 
were nevertheless calculated to cast a lasting shadow of re- 
proach upon the Church and the ministry. Again, what calls 
itself by the name of economy may be a lack of liberality. No 
small hindrance to the benevolent work of the Church has 
come from the penuriousness of well-to-do preachers. The 
matter of frugality is far from being as simple as it looks. 



SAVIKG VS. EFFICIENCY 45 

How will it be possible among so many factors to decide 
whether a man is to be accounted as frugal or as something 
less commendable ? Every man is convinced that he has used 
all possible diligence and frugality, and will feel that he has 
been unjustly dealt with unless treated accordingly. 

The Question of Salakies. It is the same issue which ap- 
pears in the question, "Ought not the man who has received a 
smaller salary to be correspondingly favored in the dis- 
tribution to Conference Claimants?'^ The minister who 
has received $1,500 ought to have saved more, and should 
therefore be less needy, and receive a smaller allotment 
than the one who has never received more than $1,000. This 
also is only a superficial securing of justice. Differences in 
salary may count for something, but often they do not. 
Always they count for less than is popularly supposed, and 
they are by no means conclusive in individual cases. Size of 
income is only one factor in making up the account. The 
situations which offer the larger salaries usually impose a 
higher standard of living; the size of a salary cannot be con- 
sidered wholly apart from the number of people it is to sup- 
port; the variant of perquisites evades all calculations, some- 
times being a negligible quantity and sometimes a noticeabJe 
addition to the income ; a family handicapped by the frequent 
or continuous illness of some of its members is not on equal 
terms with one in which health is practically unbroken ; some 
men have a positive genius for attracting gifts and donations 
outside of the salary, which is lacking in other men who are 
equally good and efficient. These considerations are quite 
enough to show how indefinite and unsatisfactory must be 
any distribution which can be made under this patchwork 
combination of personal savings and Church contributions. 

Deserving or Necessities. Further confusion and dif- 
ficulty are introduced into the problems by the commingling 
of deservings and necessities. Neither under this plan can 
be entirely left out of the accounting. The plan rests upon the 
assumption that the minister has earned a life-time support, 
a part of which is still due and unpaid. The only tangible 
evidence that he has not received it is the fact that he does 
not have it. This fixes as the actual basis of his claim, not 
his past services or his past receivings but his present poverty. 
No matter how we try to disguise it, this scheme makes the 



46 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

Retired Minister an object of the charity of the Church. It 
will be difficult, if not impossible, to obtain an adequate sup- 
port upon such a plea. Men do not feel toward their charities 
the compelling sense of obligation which binds them to the 
payment of their debts. Furthermore, we shall not be able 
to secure for any man, however worthy, who is an object of 
charity the respect which is freely accorded the man who 
lives upon an income which is justly and securely his own. 
Under such a system, the preacher must not only expose his 
povert}^, but he must justify it in order to establish his claim 
to support. Before the equity of his claim can be fully 
recognized, he must set at rest all the questions heretofore 
enumerated, which relate to the wise and frugal use of his 
money. They may not be asked explicitly and officially, but 
they will be implied in the minds of his brethren, and cannot 
be ignored by those who are to adjust his claim. In some way 
or other it will be inquired whether or not he is really poor 
and in need; how poor he is, and how he came to be so poor. 
This system converts what ought to be a Eoll of Honor into 
something not far from a roll of dishonor. It tends to defeat 
itself by weakening the incentive to save. It is a policy which 
never arrives anywhere. Instead of solving the problem it 
effectually blocks the way to a solution. One of the two 
propositions already stated must be definitely adopted and 
definitely worked out in order that we may have a consistent 
policy that we can follow to the end. 

An Expensive Policy. I present the proposition to solve 
the problem by paying such salaries as will afford a good 
margin for savings, because sometimes it seems to be offered in 
all seriousness by men who are sincere and liberal. Too often 
it is offered by men who show no disposition to provide the 
liberal salary required. The emphasis seems to be on the 
savings and not on the salaries, as if the end really sought 
were to get rid of responsibility for the support of Retired 
Ministers. Xo thoughtful man offers this plan as a measure 
of economy. It is the most expensive proposition ever pro- 
pounded, if it is to be made genuinely effective. A salary 
which, by pinching economy under favora]:»le conditions, will 
yield some little savings for a very frugal man is not enough. 
For this plan a salary must be paid which will permit the 
ordinary man without cutting his living expense below the 



SAVING VS. EFFICIENCY 47 

level of efficiency to lay up enough to keep him in comfort 
after his working days are over. If the minister has saved 
enough to keej) him in comfort then it is because the amount 
over and above a comfortable living has been 2:)aid him by the 
Church. It is held in his own name as his own possession and 
at his death passes to his heirs. In this way the Church loses 
all further benefit from it, and must immediately begin to 
provide a like sum for the man who follows him. If the 
Church either as an organization, or by its individual mem- 
bers, holds this sum in its own possession, paying the income 
of it to the Eetired Minister, then at his death it may begin 
to use the same funds for the support of another man. 

Embarrassing Gaps. This proposition is not only ex- 
pensive but displays embarrassing gaps. It misses the case 
of the man who lacks the gift to save. Such a man is not to 
be reproached for his deficiency in this respect any more than 
is the man who lacks eloquence to be reproached for his defi- 
ciency. In spite of admonitions and reproaches some men 
seem never to acquire the gift of acquiring. Other men are 
the victims of persistent or repeated misfortunes which make 
savings impossible. If a policy were possible which would 
leave each man to care for himself with his own savings, it 
would simply condemn all men in these two classes to inevi- 
table want. In spite of its outward show of justice, we some- 
how cannot help feeling that for a Methodist preacher, who 
has been a faithful servant of God and of the people, to be 
in want for the ordinary comforts of life, or to spend his last 
days in a poorhouse, or to be placed in the position of becom- 
ing a dependent upon charity, would be an unseemly thing. 

The Efficiency Test. But pass by these considerations 
and put the issue between these two policies squarely upon the 
point of efficiency. 

I quote from an article relative to teachers' pensions, con- 
tributed to the Outlook by Martha Bensley Bruere. We need 
scarcely do more than substitute "preacher" for "teacher" in 
order to make the article serve the purpose of this discussion, 
for the principle is identical and the facts parallel. 

Teaching Efficiency Marijed. "I have before me the 
family budgets of a series of high school tea(;hers and college 
professors, men on salaries ranging from $1,200 to $-1,000 a 
year, and living across the country from Maine to California. 



48 THE EETIEED MIXISTER 

In every case but one it is easy to see how old age and the fear 
of it is like a paralyzing hand to mar the efficiency of their 
homes. The fear of the future drives these men to save as the 
only way to provide for the future, and tends to reduce below 
the efficiency line the amount of money they are at liberty to 
spend on their homes and their professional equipment." 

Two items from the budget of a high school teacher receiv- 
ing a salary of $1,800 a year are Insurance $140, Savings 
Bank $325. These represent the drain on the family income 
in order to provide for the future. The insurance is a slight 
defense for the family in case of death of the bread-winner, 
and would probably yield scarcely enough to provide a home. 
The bank item represents a provision for old age none too 
large for its purpose. If it were to continue for thirty years, 
with no draft for sickness, non-employment, accident or 
other emergency, it would scarcely amount to more than 
enough to provide an income of $400 a year. Over against 
these items put the following from the same budget: "Food, 
$180; Papers, Magazines, etc., $7; Vacation, $50." 

From the letter of a professor's wife which accompanied 
her budget the following excerpts are taken : 

"You will see from this schedule that it is absolutely neces- 
sary that I should do all my work, including my laundering. 
Trying to put our children through Eastern Colleges was too 
much for some of us, for I have been under a severe mental 
strain, and our daughter has been in a sanitarium for months 
because of a nervous break-down." "After my husband out- 
lives his usefulness he and I will have to live on $250 a year." 

The writer of the article asked the head of a great school 
system this question : "If you knew that you would have a 
pension for your old age, and that your family would be pro- 
vided for if you died, would it make any difference in your 
work?" His answer was, "It would make me thirty — no, 
forty — per cent more efficient right now. The thought of 
what might happen to them, if I were scrapped, is a ball and 
chain on my foot holding me back from no end of things I 
might and ought to do." Dr. Henry D. Pritchett is quoted 
as saying: "A large proportion of the teachers in American 
Universities are engaged in turning the grindstone of some 
outside employment with one hand while they carry on the 
work of teaching with the other." 



SAVING VS. EFFICIENCY 49 

One Exception. The one exception found by the writer 
of the article, in which efficiency was not being paralyzed by 
fear of the future, or fettered by the struggle to save, was that 
of a teacher receiviiig only a moderate salary who was entitled 
to a competent pension, with a half allowance for his wife 
in case of his death, so that he was perfectly free to invest 
the whole of his salary in equipment and development. 

Preachers and Teachers. Every consideration which 
this article advances relative to the efficiency of teachers 
a^Dplies to the minister with equal or even greater force. The 
average salary of the teachers of the country is slightly in 
advance of that of the ministers. Proportionally a larger 
number of teachers are unmarried than of ministers; while 
the longer vacation of the teacher offers an economic oppor- 
tunity which the minister does not have ; but nevertheless the 
whole relation between savings and efficiency for the minister 
is fairly set forth in these extracts. 

Efficiency Waste. Their first suggestion is, that it is not 
wise to raise the issue, much less to force the issue, between the 
hoarding of money for future necessity and its use for present 
efficiency. If we leave a man to depend upon his savings for 
his comfort in retirement, inevitably w^e raise this issue. No 
one really expects the salaries of the rank and file of the 
ministers to be raised to such a figure as will enable them to 
provide for all reasonable demands for ministerial equijoment, 
and at the same time to lay up a sum that will enable them 
to secure their future beyond peradventure. There will be 
a constant tendency to pare down investment in efficiency to 
the lowest possible limit in order to allow increased invest- 
ment in savings. The loss in efficiency which results from the 
diversion of money to the savings account is only a part of 
the loss. There is a savings policy which involves a certain 
efficiency waste. I do not undervalue or oppose economy. A 
wise and well-directed economy is in itself a wholesome exer- 
cise. But it must have behind it not the lash of a motive 
which is a consumer of nerve force, but the exhilarating push 
of a motive which of itself is an inspiration. An economy 
over-driven by the fear of want is likely to waste over savings, 
time and energy that ought to be expended in 23roduction. In 
the period of my ministerial apprenticeship a young man 
came to my study with the familiar hard-luck story, "Out 



50 THE EETIEED MIXISTEK 

of mone}^ and out of work." His immediate needs were met. 
He claimed to be a car2)enter, and I 2:)er8uaded a good-natured 
contractor to give him a jol). A few days later I asked him 
about tlie young man. ^'Tliat f(>llowI" said the contractor. 
^'I fired him." ^ "Wliat for?" I asked. "Wasn't lie a good 
workman?" "He was a good enough workman. T fired liini 
for picking up nails. Every time he dropped a nail he 
stopped to pick it up. I told him to let the nails go, for his 
time was worth more to me than the nails. After I had told 
him about a dozen times and he kept on, I fired him. I 
couldn't afford to pay a man carpenter's wages to pick up 
nails." It is no exaggeration to say that to-day our churches 
are requiring the preacher to provide for his own comfort 
by "picking up nails." The proper direction for the preacher's 
economy to take is the effective investment of his salary for 
the enrichment of his ministry. His salary ought to be 
estimated with that in view. Any considerable amount be- 
yond tliat is almost sure to result in the impairment of minis- 
terial life and service. As the soldier, so the minister ought 
not to carry too many inipedimenfa. Brethren, if we wish to 
claim a soldier's pension, we must acce2')t the conditions of a 
soldier's service. 

Nervous Waste. Close to this lies tlie vivid sugges- 
tion in almost every one of these extracts of the superior 
efficiency of the man who is freed from anxiety as to the 
future comfort of himself and his family. The minister's 
efficiency depends ultimately upon the condition of his 
nervous system. A few men may scout this statement as fail- 
ing to give due honor to the Holy Spirit; but only a few and 
they have not wisely considered this matter. There is no 
way by which the Holy Spirit can come into a man's life and 
be passed on to other lives without being transmitted over that 
mysterious complex of living wires, the nervous system. If 
they are worn or broken or grounded, the transmission of the 
divine message will be obstructed. AYe have to consider not 
only the familiar physical truth that whatever consumes 
nerve-force or depresses nervous vitalit}" lowers both mental 
and physical efficiency, but also the surprising spiritual truth, 
that the waste or weakening or breaking of the nervous 
system hinders the working of the Holy Spirit by marring 
the instrument through which He must operate. The way 



SAVING VS. EFFICIENCY 51 

to avoid this impairment of efficiency is to lift the burden 
of support in age from the minister's mind by pledging the 
Church for it and backing the pledge with the necessary cash. 

Divided Interest. Let us apply to this problem another 
familiar fact, the loss of efficiency through a division of in- 
terest and attention. If the minister must provide in any 
considerable part for his old age he cannot have an undivided 
mind. At this point we are confronted by the fact that for 
the average minister to provide for himself through his sav- 
ings only is practically impossible. Men do not come to the 
possession of a competency by the mere accumulation of sav- 
ings, but by the growth of savings through profitable invest- 
ment. Savings alone are not sufficient. This is why the 
man who has only his savings to depend upon never quite 
gets fear out of his heart. The profitable investment and 
management of savings divides time and energy. The min- 
ister who is involved in business enterprises and loaded with 
business anxieties cannot give himself wholly to the work of 
the ministry. The drag of the outside interest never ceases. 
If the minister seeks to unload this burden by commending 
the management of his savings to some one else, he will still 
need to be on his guard lest the manager shall manage to 
absorb the bulk of the profits, to say nothing of the original 
investment. One of the saddest chapters in ministerial life 
is that which contains the record of the tragedies and failures 
that have resulted from attempts of ministers to build up 
their pitiful little savings into a competency — men who have 
been stripped of their savings, men who have been stripped 
of reputation and men who, retaining a measure of both, have 
been lured on until their lives were emptied of spiritual power 
while they, like Samson, "wist not that their strength was 
departed from them." The tragedy of tlie men who have 
sought to escape poverty over this road is more bitter even 
than the tragedy of those wlio, knowing and single-hearted, 
have gone steadfastly on, not pleasing tliemselvcs. 

CoNCENTHATiON. Not Icast of all, though often least con- 
sidered, is the result of the contiimous concentration of life 
into the minister's one great business. Every ])a('kward pull 
of dread of the future upon a man's nervous and spiritual 
energy, every bestowment of interest upon a rival enterprise, 
has retarded the growth of ministerial power, and hastened 



52 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

that staying of progress which proclaims the crossing of the 
dead-line. I have in mind a minister, one time a leader in 
his Conference, who when in his prime began to provide for 
his old age. In a few years his acceptability and usefulness 
were gone, and he lives discontented and unregarded, but 
rich; and I have in mind another minister whose hair is 
white, and who walks about in a body that shows in every 
attitude and movement the traces of age, but who seems 
destined to preach with acceptability and power until he 
falls in the midst of his work. He has poured his whole life 
into his one sacred business and he is as useful and happy 
and pool' as any minister has a right to be. The plan which 
compels a man either to forego comfort in age or to use up 
life in the attempt to build his savings into a comfortable 
fortune ; which cuts off a man's efficiency just when he ought 
to be at the zenith of his usefulness, thus robbing the Church 
of years of service, is not economy. Not only in length of 
service do we lose, but also in its intensity and fulness. A 
life which is divided in its interests and activities loses mo- 
mentum every time it turns aside. When it resumes its 
course, it does so with a slower rate of motion ; and not until 
after a considerable time does it recover what has been lost, 
and the gain which should have been made will never be re- 
covered. A life divided and wavering between two interests 
never comes to its best. But a life which with perfect 
abandon pours its full intensity of concentrated energy into 
the work of the ministry experiences an accumulation of 
power until the body begins visibly to fail. 

CoxcLusiox. "We conclude that the long-tried, patching- 
out policy is impossible of adjustment, humiliating to the 
ministry, unworthy of a great and self-respecting Church, and 
ought to be abandoned as speedih^ as possible ; that the policy 
of requiring the minister to care for his own comfort with 
his savings will either seriously reduce ministerial equipment 
and efficiency without really j^roviding an adequate support, 
or will require an increase of salaries which passes the bounds 
of reasonable expectation; and that the only righteous way 
out is to pay the minister a good working salary while he 
works and a living pension when he becomes old. 

Joseph W. Yan Cleve. 

Decatur, 111. 




THE DEBT OF THE 

NATION TO THE 

MINISTRY 

THE REV. ISAAC H. LIDSTONE 

Treasurer Board of Trustees, East Maine Conference 



It ought not to be a difficult matter, in tlie Capital of the 
Nation, to discover the amount of the national debt, even 
though the snm total of that indebtedness is so large that the 
ordinary man finds difficulty in comprehending it. It would 
be, also, an easy matter to find out how this great debt was 
incurred; some of it charged to the Mexican War, other vast 
sums to the Civil War, another sum to the late war with 
Spain ; and still other millions to the exigencies of administra- 
tion, or maladministration, as the case may be, when the 
income of the nation did not equal its expenditures. But 
there is a debt which no man has measured, a thing indeter- 
minate, which the most skillful accountant cannot compute — 
the debt of which we speak at this time — the Debt of the 
Nation to the Ministry. It would be comparatively easy to 
tell of national obligations to the few who, like Saul the son 
of Kish, tower above their fellows, but who can tell the story 
of the influence exerted by the obscure and inconspicuous 
toiler in tlie kingdom of Christ! I desire to recall the 
nation's obligations to them, "lest we forget, lest we forget." 

Foundations 

We are not far from magnificent structures dedicated to 
the uses of the repu!)lic. Like the disciples of old, we might 
say, "See what manner of buildings are these!" We are 
filled with admiration for the skilled artisans who wrought 
to the end that symmetry and strength and beauty should 
be combined in these splendid buildings. We regard with 
pleasure the harmony in coloring, the beauty of pillar and 
capital, the appropriate frieze, the mural decorations, and tlie 
inanimate loveliness of the artist's dream which lias l)e(*ome 

53 



54 THE EETIEED MTXISTEK 

visible in granite and marble. But who among ns gives a 
tlionght to the massive, unseen stones of the foundation? 
Hidden from the gaze of men, these stones are as fine in grain 
and as enduring as those Avhicli adorn the superstructure; but 
the skill of the artificer was not lavished on them. Yet if 
the rugged stones of the foundation should fail, ruin would 
come to the building. There are ministers who, like the 
stones in the foundation of the Capitol, are unseen by the 
crowd, and known to but few master builders of foundations, 
for whom awaits a crown of eternal rejoicing. 

The beginnings of this repuljlic were essentially religious. 
The Puritan was a mighty man in war, a splendid pioneer, 
and undoubtedly pious, but he was also the personification 
of militant intolerance. He hated Baptists, witches and 
Catholics; and later, when he had the opportunit}^, he showed 
but little affection for the ^Methodists. He had many virtues, 
although they were at times obscured by external unloveli- 
ness. He built his churches on the hill-top, and beside the 
church he built a school-house for the instruction of his 
sturdy offspring. How did it come to pass that the Pilgrim 
and the Puritan came to the rugged coast of Massachusetts? 
The minister, John Robinson of Delft, was the dominating 
spirit, the mainspring of the whole movement which resulted 
in the voyage of the Mayflower and the founding of the new 
state. As Bishop Quayle has put it, "The clergyman was in 
the veins of American life. He was not injected. He was 
and always will remain a constituent of the blood.'^ 

The religious element is one of the most prominent fea- 
tures in the founding of all the colonies. Roger Williams, a 
preacher, flees for his life, finds an asylum and founds a new 
State in Rhode Island. William Penn, another preacher, 
founded the great commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It would 
be difficult to find anyone more thoroughly religious than 
the Roman Catholic, Lord Baltimore. The Dutch Protestants 
founded New Amsterdam, and Governor Oglethorpe brought 
John Wesley to America in order to implant the gospel leaven 
among the citizens of Georgia. The Huguenots, persecuted for 
righteousness' sake, settled the Carolinas. Only in Virginia 
was the Church an afterthought, when it had been discovered 
that it required more than the valor of a John Smith to estab- 
lish order and justice among men. 



DEBT OF THE NATION 55 

The Knight of the Saddlebags 

But this ]s not the end of the matter by any means. The 
knight of the saddlebags was no mean factor in making civil- 
ization real in the West as well as in the East. To read the 
story of Bishop Asbury is to become acquainted with the 
means used to make this a Christian nation instead of a 
nation according to the ideals of Paine and Voltaire. The 
pioneer preacher, who endured poverty and perils of every 
sort that he might bring the good news to those who were 
scattered abroad in the wilderness and on the prairies of the 
great western domain, was not always polished in speech and 
manners. He could fight as well as exhort. He knew Christ 
and his sins forgiven, and preached a believable doctrine, 
which President Hyde of Bowdoin College characterized as 
follows: "Methodism was the revival of grace, when laiv had 
lost its grip and love tuas dragging her anchor." The picture 
which Peter Cartwright draws for us of the conditions of 
Eogues^ Harbor was true to life in other parts of the frontier 
than Illinois. These men were heroes without knowing it, 
knight errants of the cross of Christ ! They were the real con- 
querors of the wilderness. They attended ''Brusli College." 
The wilderness was their Alma Mater ; the Bible, the Dis- 
cipline, Fletcher's Checks, and the writings of John Wesley 
constituted their biblical and theological library; they loved 
God, believed in a very real devil, hated sin and loved sinners. 
In tlie words of an ancient doggerel we may say : 

"The circuit riders of that day were not so very grand. 
They took degrees at rolling logs and clearing up the land. 
But when they rose to preach it seemed that you could smell 
The fragrant flowers of heaven and the stifling smoke of hell." 



Certainly they were the rough stones in the foundations of 
empire. They belonged to a class of men of whom the world 
was not wortliy; and a fitting characterization of them would 
read like the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. The itinerant 
ministry became cultured without losing its old-time stamina, 
and is still preacliing tlie gospel in tlie demonstration of the 
Spirit and of power. The wilderness is no longer tlie 
problem, but newer and more difficult problems have arisen 
amid the complexities of modern life, which try the souls of 



56 THE EETIEED MINISTEK 

men and their capacity to meet them, as certainly as the 
fathers had to meet the okl prohlems which tried tlieir souls. 

The Preacher a Moral Force 

Let me S2)eak now of the preacher as a force in the realm 
of morals. I am not yet fifty years old, but I have seen 
some things which strengthen my faith in the power of the 
gospel when it is preached by a man who is unafraid and 
whose heart God has touched. I once knew a community 
wdiose immoralities were most striking and disheartening. 
So low were its ideals that two men swapped wives without 
the formality of a divorce, one man giving the other an ox 
chain to boot. A Baptist preacher came to that town and 
though amazed by Avhat he saw, he believed that the gospel 
could do what the law^ had failed to do, and began a campaign 
for the salvation of that community. He consorted with 
the lowly, and like his Master became the friend of the out- 
cast. Presently some were convicted of sin and turned to the 
Lord. The good "work went on, the Sunday school became a 
popular institution, and the prayer meeting a place of amaz- 
ing interest and power. Eespectable folk saw what God had 
wrought and turned to the Lord. That was yesterday. What 
are the conditions to-day? ^^Old things have passed away, 
behold all things have become new.'' Honesty and chastity 
prevail and the local magistrate, once so necessary, has disap- 
peared. I preached in a Methodist church in that region and 
saw a number of these people, "clothed and in their right 
mind." That Baptist minister had done what the law had 
failed to do. He belongs to a brotherhood who constitute the 
militant phalanx of the kingdom of heaven. 

I live in the State of Maine. I love every crested hill of 
her rugged landscape. I love her forests, aglow with the 
glories of autumn and rioting in gold and crimson amid the 
deep green of the firs. I love her rugged sea-coast in all its 
moods of storm and calm. I love the salt breath of the ocean 
when Boreas and Euroclydon crest every rugged reef with 
spume until they foam like the frothing of some fabled 
monster. But that whicli makes me proud of Maine is not 
her wealth or scenic beauty, nor her abundant harvests, her 
orchards, lakes or hills, her happy homes, her prosperous and 
growing cities or splendid institutions. I love the Old Pine 




DEBT OF THE NATION 57 

Tree State, because of the fact that no saloon keeper or brewer 
can look me in the face and say, "I am doing business with 
the sanction of the law." But there was a time when the 
conscience of Maine slept, while iniquity was sanctioned for 
a price, and law was nullified by the aid of legal devices; 
when political parties came together in convention and de- 
clared their fervent allegiance to the prohibitory law, and then 
forgot it, being in favor of the law but against its enforce- 
ment. Then came a man who reached Holland's ideal: 

"God give us men! A time like this demands 
Strong minds, brave hearts, true faith, and ready hands. 
Men whom the lust of office cannot kill; 
Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy; 
Men who have opinions and a will; 
Men who have honor and who will not lie; 
Men who can face the treacherous demagogue. 
And damn his flatteries without winking; 
Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog 
In public duty, and in private thinking. 
For while the rabble with their thumb-worn creeds, 
Their large pretensions and their little deeds. 
Mingle in selfish strife, lo! Freedom weeps. 
Wrong rules the world, and waiting justice sleeps." 

Wilbur F. Berry, a Methodist preacher, was that man. 
He came to us with a message. He woke us from our decade- 
long sleep. He showed us the majesty of the law and the rela- 
tion of the citizen to its enforcement. He laughed our cow- 
ardice to shame; and Maine awoke. He has a jail sentence 
hanging over him, but he does not go to jail; for some- 
times the devil is wiser than we think. That is the reason 
that Dr. Berry does not go to jail. We still have our prohib- 
itory law, and from the life and lips of a Methodist preacher 
we are learning that the price of liberty and sobriety is 
eternal, sleepless vigilance. 

This is but one instance of many that I could cite in which 
the minister has saved the day for law and order and awak- 
ened communities to the peril of lawlessness. For good 
morals are as nearly related to economics as to righteousness. 
Sin is a burden not only to the soul, but on tlie taxpayer. 
The true minister is a constructive statesman. He is a 
builder of citizens in the truest sense of tlie woi'd; for liistory 
bears witness to the fact that morals are not self -propagating, 



58 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

and that behind every system of efficient morality there must 
be the support in some form of religion. 

The Mixister's Family 

In a marked degree the nation is in debt to the minister's 
family. Take one conspicuous instance: x\t the American 
Institute of Instruction, held in Halifax, N. S., in 1900, there 
was given a series of sketches of some fifteen hundred descend- 
ants of Jonathan Edwards, who was born in 1703. Out of the 
fifteen hundred descendants there were only six criminals. 
There was not a single pauper, imbecile or insane person; 
but in railroading, mining, medicine, law, literature, states- 
manship and theology, the descendants of Jonathan Edwards 
have been prominent in the country at large. Two hundred 
and eighty-three of the fifteen hundred were college graduates, 
and thirteen were college presidents. Our limits forbid any 
attempt at a comprehensive statement, but we will give a 
few names of preachers' sons whom we delight to honor, and 
whose memory is like incense: Henry Clay, the great com- 
promiser; Fitz-Greene Halleck; Oliver Wendell Holmes; 
James Russell Lowell; Frederick Lawrence Knowles; Rich- 
ard Watson Gilder; the last two coming from Methodist par- 
sonages, as did also the late Senator Dolliver and United 
States Senator Bristow. The Field family, including Henry 
M., the editor, David Dudley and Stephen J., lawyers, and 
Cyrus, of Atlantic cable fame, lend distinction to the family 
of every preacher in the United States. To these we may add 
the names of Henry Ward Beecher, and his gifted sister, 
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Louis Agassiz the scientist, Samuel 
F. B. Morse the inventor, and the Wright brothers, the per- 
fecters of the heavier-than-air flying machine. The honored 
President of this great Republic, Woodrow Wilson, is a 
preacher's son, as were also Presidents Arthur and Cleveland. 

In the world of education it would be difficult to find a 
college or university that was not in some large measure 
indebted to a minister. He is and always has been preemi- 
nently the friend of education. It is a source of astonishment 
to many people to learn how large a percentage of the stu- 
dents in the colleges at the present day are sons of ministers. 
In Methodism's oldest college there are sixty. Rev. John 
Howard founded Harvard University; Dr. Leonard Wood 



DEBT OF THE NATION 59 

founded Andover Theological Seminary; Dr. Dempster, 
Dr. Barrows and Bishop Baker founded Garrett Biblical Insti- 
tute; Rev. Thomas Kirkland founded Hamilton College; 
Eev. John Livingstone founded Eutgers College; while 
Goucher College, Baltimore, betokens the foresight and genius 
of Eev. John Goucher. Dartmouth College was born in the 
heart of the Eev Eleazar Wheelock, pioneer of the Christian 
education for the Indians of Nev' England. We add the 
names of some great college presidents, who have enhanced 
the glories of the institutions over which they have presided, 
and we have such men as Jonathan Edwards, Drs. Wither- 
spoon and McCosh. No wonder that Princeton glories in 
the fact of their presidency of that great school. Williams 
had Mark Hopkins, of whom it is said that James A. Garfield 
on one end of a log and Dr. Mark Hopkins on the other con- 
stituted a university. At this point again the ministry gets 
near to the presidency, for Mark Hopkins did more to shape 
Garfield's life than any other person, excepting his devoted 
and heroic mother. To these add Eliphalet Nott, sixty-two 
years a college president, Francis Waylancl, John Price Dur- 
bin, Wilbur Fisk, Stephen Olin, Nathan Bangs, Cyrus D. 
Foss, E. 0. Haven, William F. McDowell, Matthew Simpson, 
Thomas Bowman, John P. D. John, Dr. Gobin, Edwin H. 
Hughes, J. E. Day, Herbert Welch and others ; some of whom 
went from the college presidency to the episcopacy. 

In the realm of literature there are so many names of min- 
isters that I can scarcely give you a list of them without mak- 
ing it the merest catalogue. Here are such names as Abel 
Stevens, Daniel Curry, Gilbert Haven, D. D. W^hedon and 
that versatile and discriminating editor of the Methodist 
RevieiD, William Y. Kelley. To these add that robust thinker 
and indefatigable debater and controversialist. Dr. James M. 
Buckley; and the splendid and efficient journalist who has 
made New England wiser and better for a quarter of a cen- 
tury. Dr. Charles Parkhurst, of Zions Herald, and his asso- 
ciate. Dr. E. C. E. Dorion. Others who are aspiring to fame 
in the realms of Methodist literature will not be envious at 
the mention of these names. I wanted to say these things 
while these men are living; for thank God, all of the wortliies 
of the editorial sanctum are not dead ! 

Lyman Abbott, Henry Ward Beecher, Washington Gladden, 



60 THE EETIEED MIXISTER 

A. T. Pierson, Henry van Dyke, JSTewcll Dwiglit Hillis, 
Edward Everett Hale and many others miolit be mentioned. 

The Mixister a PAxraoT 

In conclusion let me say that the minister is ever a patriot. 
In the days when the fate of the Union trcml^led in the bal- 
ance there were two men who were conspicuous in their serv- 
ices to the country : Matthew Simpson, Methodist, and Henry 
"Ward Beecher, Congregationalist. Wliile Bishop Simpson 
flamed up and down the land, kindling the fires of patriot- 
ism in thousands of American hearts, and sustaining in prayer 
and fellowship the Great Heart at the White House, Beecher 
went to England to state the case to the British. It was no 
small task. It demanded a high type of courage and skill to 
face the hosts of Englishmen whose families were hungry be- 
cause of the embargo on cotton. But Beecher won the day. On 
the nio^ht of his first o:reat victorv the audience was filled with 
the mob spirit, l)ut Beecher conquered, and tradition saj'S 
that on the next day there was taken from the hall a dray- 
load of brickbats which had been intended for the American 
preacher. And what shall I say for the thousands whose 
names are not mentioned, men for whom the wilderness and 
the solitary place have been glad and under whose cultivation 
the desert has rejoiced and blossomed as the rose ? The Xation 
is their debtor, a tardy debtor, it is true, but we believe that 
the better clay is coming for those who have borne the burden 
and the heat of the day, and that the time is hastening when 
this great Church, which came into being at the time the 
Nation was born, and which received its constitutional form 
at the time the American Constitution was being formulated, 
will properly care for the widow and the orphan, and will 
make life's eventide bright for the Veteran of the cross. 
Bishop Cranston had a prophet's vision when he said: 

"The world will never pay its debt to these men. But the 
Church will not repudiate their Claim/' 

Then there will be no more the specter of want to alarm 
them, nor the feeling of sadness that the Church has for- 
gotten its obligations, but a glad sense of security in the 
providence of God and the honesty of his people. 

Isaac H. Lidstoxe. 

Danforth, Me. 




THE CHURCH'S DEBT 

TO THF 

PASTOR'S FAMILY 

THE REV. GEORGE M. STONE, D.D. 

Late of Hartford, Conn. 



The justice of the claim of aged and disabled ministers 
upon the Churcii, for sympathy and aid in their time of need, 
involves a plea in behalf of other members of the minister's 
family. The wives, and sometimes no less the children of 
Christian pastors, have always been, in the Protestant econ- 
omy of the pastoral office, no inconsiderable element in their 
success. The tactful service of the pastor's wife has fre- 
quently per23etuated his term of office on a difficult field. Her 
consecration has as frequently shielded him from adverse 
criticism where, perhaps, it may have been deserved. All the 
more does her relation to the minister's home deserve recogni- 
tion, because it has been in her life work so many times un- 
recognized. Pier hints and suggestions regarding literary 
faults of the preacher, her vigilance over his personal appear- 
ance, her subtle and womanly insight into social forces, never 
appear in the memorial notices of the pastor's work. 

The Protestant idea of family life gets expression in the 
pastoral office. No contrast in church-life is more significant 
than the home of the Protestant pastor and the domicile of 
the priest of the Eoman Church. This contrast is an ever- 
present object lesson to emphasize the sanctity of marriage, 
and its equal spiritual purity with the state of celibacy. 

The early charter of Christian liberty included the life of 
the family, as is clear from the questions of Paul, "Have we 
no right to eat and to drink ? Have we no right to lead about 
a wife that is a believer, even as the rest of the apostles ?" 

The Fathers of the Nicene Council repelled with indig- 
nation the proposition to enforce celibacy upon Christian 
pastors. When in the eleventh century, after many previous 
struggles in the Church, the iron heel of Hildebrand stamped 
out the family and the home from the life of the minister, he 

61 



62 THE EETIEED MIXISTEE 

admitted to those altars one of the most serious menaces to 
the purity and the power of the Church itself. The Greek 
Church has carried over from the primitive mold of church- 
life the right of marriage for its pastors. 

The Reformation of the sixteenth century, logically and 
naturally, restored marriage to the minister. When in 1525 
Martin Luther led Catherine Yon Bora to the altar as his 
wife, and with her founded a happy Christian home, he inaug- 
urated a new and noble chapter in the history of the home- 
life of the world. How Avidely has the family life of Christian 
pastors since molded the domestic conditions of the nations 
of the earth ! How many pictures of homes in Germany, 
England, Scotland and America are recalled by the mere men- 
tion of the manse, the rectory and the parsonage ! 

The minister's home owes much to the widows of pastors, 
because they have contributed in so large measure to purify 
the family circle in places where they have been known. It 
is time tliat we should repudiate the cynical estimate of the 
waywardness of ministers' sons. The fact is to-day that the 
sons of Christian pastors constitute a large part of the moral 
strength and fil)er of the best communities East and West. 
It has been said that every President of the United States 
had a praying mother. Some one has said, "When we educate 
a man, we educate an individual ; but when we educate a 
mother, we educate a family." In many communities the 
pastor's family is the model for others. A subtle l)ut per- 
vasive influence goes out from it, elevating other lives and 
giving them permanent direction. 

There is an uncomputed service rendered by pastors' wives 
in the training of men for the Christian ministry. Every- 
where about us are pastors' sons in the ministry. Of Dr. 
Storrs it was said that "he was ancestrally preordained to 
the Congregational Ministry." His father, grandfather and 
great-grandfather were in this hereditary line. The history 
of the women who wrought side by side with tliese illustrious 
men has not been written; ])ut who shall deny to them 
a definite and perhaps preponderating share in the turn- 
ing of their sons toward the calling of their fathers? The 
fame of Jonathan Edwards filled two continents, but the 
quiet, household sway of Sarah Pierrepont Edwards was 
scarcely less a blessing to the world. 



TPTE PASTOR^S FAMILY 63 

One President of the United States was the son of a Baptist 
minister. The best positions in civil and social life are ill led 
to-day l)y the sons and daughters of Christian pastors. The 
widows of our pastors deser\'e lionor and reward, because of 
their pj'actical ability and skill in the economic administra- 
tion of the household. We liear now-a-days much of great 
financiers. The frugality and good management of some of 
the women in the humble parsonages of the land would rival 
that of the most noted men of affairs in the centers of trade. 
Large families have been raised and educated upon six hun- 
dred dollars salary per year. They tell in New England of 
the housewives of a hundred years ago who made one pa])er 
of pins last a lifetime. There are pastors' wives still living 
who would, I think, be quite equal to this degree of economy. 

In considering our clebt to the widoAvs of pastors, due 
emphasis should be placed upon the uncertain lot of such 
women in case of the untimely death of the husband. The 
change made in such cases is frequently greater than in the 
more common vocations of life. Not long since I was in a 
sad home, where the pastor, a popular man, had been stricken 
down suddenly in comparatively early life. The widow, with 
her little family, was soon to go out of their home. Of course, 
the library must be sold. The death of the pastor involved 
not only a change in the social position of the wife, but also 
brought about new and painful conditions in every aspect 
and hope of her life. Even though the pastor's wife may 
have left a home of independence to become her husband's 
helpmeet, such are the vicissitudes of life that she may not 
return to it in her day of bereavement. It would be difficult 
to imagine a situation more trying and precarious than that 
of a pastor's widow under said circumstances. 

The Church should exercise a constant solicitude over them 
as co-workers with her ministers and missionaries. "The 
graves of all the saints are blest,'^ but while no conspicuous 
shafts of marble mark the resting-places of the band of con- 
secrated women, the earth has no more sacred dust than 
theirs. The grave of Sarah Boardman Judson, at St. Helena, 
joins together the continents which hold the dust of Ann 
ITasseltine on one side, and Emily Chubbuck on the other. 
The entire Churcth of God has paid its tribute to these hand- 
maids of the cross. Our plea to-day is in behalf of that 



64 THE RETIEED MIXTSTER 

numerous compaii}- whose services in an humbler sphere 
have been under "the Great Taskmaster's Eye/' and have met 
His divine approval. In pleading for these, we plead for the 
silent. They suffer, and make no sign. It is said in one of 
the most beautiful Psalms, the sixty-eighth : "She that tarried' 
at home, divided the spoil." 

The well-earned reward of Christian women is recognized 
by the Master Himself that it may ])e by us also. Tlie em- 
phatic recognition of the service of Mary in the breaking of 
the alabaster vase upon tlie person of Christ is perhaps our 
clearest and highest warrant for conscientious solicitude over 
the temporal needs of the widows of our pastors. When 
gifted women have entered Christian service, partial friends 
have said, "To what purpose is this waste?" "When Fanny 
Forrester became the wife of Dr. Judson in the flowering 
time of her literary genius, the worldly public were thrown 
into something like a panic over what they thought "an un- 
paralleled and senseless sacrifice." It was the common talk 
that the brilliant authoress was throwing herself away. Al- 
ready, however, her Master had said of one of her prede- 
cessors, "Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the 
whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, 
be told for a memorial of her." 

Many years ago, I stood on the deck of an outward-bound 
steamer in the harbor of New York. Among the grouj^s on 
the deck, saying farewells, were a young bride and her hus- 
band, starting out as missionaries to South Africa. The 
bride had been reared in one of the most affluent homes of 
the great city. The step she was taking in leaving it for 
service and suffering in the dark continent was inexplicable 
to some of her friends. Her clear-sighted faith left her with- 
out doubt of her course, and enabled her to act upon the 
higher motive and finally to give up life for it. 

The Protestant idea of the faithful pastor's family life has 
created a sphere for the exercise of a wide variety of woman's 
gifts. Martha served the Master as truly as Mary, though 
after a different manner. Each held by lier special gift, and 
met a felt want of the Lord during His earthly life. And 
still the varied needs of His people require services widely 
different. The chef of the Parker House, Boston, and the 
president of Harvard College received the same salary. But 



THE PASTOR'S Fz\MILY 65 

confusion twice confounded would ensue if they changed 
places for a single day. Martha had no sentiment. But senti- 
ment has its legitimate place in the Church, and Mary brings 
it to her altars. "She bows, she bathes the Saviour's feet with 
costly spikenard, and Avith tears." Of her practical sister, it is 
written, "They made him a feast at Bethany, and Martha 
served." Eor He was hungry betimes, and knew the differ- 
ence between a savory meal and one prepared Avithout the 
skill of woman's native art. There are different gifts, but 
the same spirit, and both man and Avoman serve best Avho hold 
fast to their own gifts with true self-reverence and steadfast 
faith that God has Avoven into them the qualities Avhich 
pleased Him. 

Finally, there is a cloud of witnesses on earth and in 
heaven, who could speak of the unpaid debt owed to pastors' 
wiA^es; the pastors themselves. Principal Fairbairn, in the 
dedication to his noble book, "The Place of Christ in Modern 
History," says: "This book is dedicated to my Avife, Avhose 
quiet helpfulness and fair companionship have made the 
tAventy-five years of our wedded life years of happy labor 
and gracious peace." The classic verse of Old Testament love 
is : "And Jacob served seven years for Rachel ; and they 
seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her." 
This is love before marriage, but the sober word of the Avise 
man in past marriage life is : "Her price is far above rubies. 
The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he 
shall have no need of spoil. She Avill do him good and not 
evil all the days of her life. She openeth her mouth Avith 
Avisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness. Slie 
looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the 
bread of idleness. Her children arise up, and call her blessed ; 
her husband also, and he praiseth her." 

High encomiums should fall upon living ears. There is too 
much post mortem appreciation of the value of pastors' Avivos. 
Let us see to it that we fail not in honor and care for the liv- 
ing. I had rather have a single violet on my study-table to- 
day than a whole bank of floAvers on my casket after death. 
On His cross our blessed Lord provided a home for His mother 
in the sheltering love of His dearest disciple. What shall be 
our response to the knoAvn need of our OAvn homeless sisters 
of the same T^ord ? 



66 



THE RETIRED M1^'ISTER 




AEMY CHAPLAIXS XOW RETIRED PREACHERS 

1. The Rev. C. H. McDermond, Missouri Conference, 
Chaplain of the lOith Pennsylvania U. S. V. 

2. The Rev. William H. Thomas, New England Confer- 
ence, ChajDlain of the 4th Xew Hampshire U. S. Y. 

3. The Rev. Ezra R. Lathrop, Minnesota Conference, 
Chaplain of the 10th Minnesota IJ. S. Y. 

4. The Rev. Joseph Henry James, Xew England Southern 
Conference, Chaplain of the 3d Xew Jersey U. S. Y. 

5. The Rev. Isaac E. Springer, D.D., Detroit Conference, 
Chaplain of the 3d Wisconsin IT. S. Y. 




WHY A SERVICE 
PENSION? 

THE EEV. C. W. MILLER, AM. 

Pittsburgh Conference 



Why should the Church contribute to the support of the 
Eetired Minister? Is there any obligation beyond that of 
support for those who are in active service? What is meant 
by the expression ''supporting the ministry"? If it means 
that the service rendered, the responsibility borne, cannot 
be measured by financial standards, that remuneration is 
impossible, that all we can do is to sustain the soldiers of the 
cross so that they do not go a warfare at their own charges, 
then the word is well chosen. No wage can pay the soldier 
for the risk taken and the service rendered in defense of the 
nation's life and honor, for supreme devotion in the hour of 
the nation's supreme need. So also the high service of hu- 
manity, which true gospel ministry involves, can have no 
financial equivalent. 

But if it means that the ministry is a non-producing class, 
a burden and tax upon society, without the rendering of 
equivalent service, then the use of the word is ill-considered 
and misleading. In this objectionable sense we might as 
well speak of supporting the officers of the government, 
physicians, lawyers, teachers, merchants, mechanics, farmers 
and laborers, for when we pay the doctor's bill, the lawyer's 
fee, the teacher's salary, the mechanic's wage, we are sup- 
porting them as truly as we are supporting the minister 
when we pay his stipend; and when we expend one hundred 
dollars for groceries, dry goods, clothing or shoes we con- 
tribute ten or more dollars to the support of the seller. 

Judged hy mere financial staiidards the Church pays. It 
is cheaper and more efficient for good order and popular 
well-being than the city government; and the average min- 
ister contributes as much to the support of others as they do 
to his. No doubt the majority of ministers could say, with 

67 



68 THE EETIEED MIXISTEE 

Dr. Adams of the Brick Church, Xew York, "I have paid 
more for the privilege of preaching the gospel than any of 
my parishioners has paid for the privilege of hearing it"; 
and we may safely say that the Church at large has had her 
ministerial service at less than cost. But to our question, 

*^Why Should the Church Coxtribute to the Support 

OF THE EeTIRED MiXISTER?" 

First, TJie term of financially productive activity is short. 
Taking into account the preparation demanded, few men can 
enter the "'ministry under twenty-fi^e years of age — some are 
thirty years or beyond. By' this time men in other nuv- 
suits have given five or ten years to their chosen line ^f ^\^rk. 

But not only does the active career begin later, it closes 
earlier. AYhen the hair begins to turn, the minister is sus- 
pected of growing old, though his physical force may not 
be noticeably abated, and though his mental grasp may be 
broader and his spiritual insight be deeper than ever before. 
He is no longer in demand just when other professional men 
are reaping the rewards of mature powers and wide experi- 
ence, and just when he is better equipped than ever before 
to be the spiritual guide of a congregation. 

Second, The pecuniary rewards are small. The time re- 
quired for a liberal education is from five to seven years and 
the cost may be estimated at three thousand dollars — by no 
means an extravagant figure. Add to this the financial return 
for these years if they had been devoted to a handicraft or 
business, and the capital invested is considerable. Clerks 
and apprentices receive wages while learning their handi- 
craft or business, but an education involves outlay from start 
to finish. The comparison is with the skilled artisan, the 
business man, the man in other lines of professional or semi- 
professional work, for we need the skilled workman in the 
pulpit and the parish as much as in any other field of human 
effort. And the Church is looking for her brightest and best 
equipped 3'oung men for the service of the sanctuary, realiz- 
ing that a ministry which would command respect must be 
competent to lead and instruct the people, and that no other 
profession or calling makes such demands on mind and heart. 
Is it any wonder that young men of ability, and natural 
ambitions, knowing in advance that they will be shut up 



; 



WHY A SERVICE PENSION 69 

to an uncertain ^'^comfortable support" and may be fore- 
doomed to scant fare, should hesitate to enter the ministry 
unless compelled by an overmastering sense of duty or love 
for the work ! Yet instances are not at all rare of men who 
have turned away from flattering prosjDCcts and profitable 
engagements to enter the ministry, and who could vastly 
improve their worldly circumstances by returning thereto. 

But the Church, while regarding the "call to the ministry" 
as imperative, has often forgotten that "the Lord hath or- 
dained that they who preach the gospel should live of the 
gospel." And might we not take less counsel of our fears 
of a secularized ministry and think more on the sins of 
omission of an unduly and unwisely economical Church ? As 
a rule, no man who could not have commanded more in an- 
other calling is fit for the ministry; and no man is fit for 
it who does not feel that the holy service is above financial 
considerations, and who does not enter upon it, "not for 
filthy lucre, but for the gospel's sake,'' out of love for the 
service itself. No man can acquire wealth from his ministry 
— I do not think that he should — I want one human activity 
to have upon it the stamp of a divine calling rather than 
the mint-mark of the secular government. AVealthy minis- 
ters are rare, and their wealth has come from other sources 
than their ministry. The vast majority fail of a competency 
for their simple needs when retired from active work. Even 
those salaries which the Church calls large are but a fraction 
of the incomes of the leaders in commerce, finance and in- 
dustries. Beecher was as great in his line as Morgan and 
Carnegie in theirs. Bishop Merrill would have been a great 
lawyer. Yet what is the salary of a bishop compared witli 
the salaries of out-standing men in the professions ! 

Third, The financial demands on him are greater than on 
any other man of equal income. 

The larger expense attendant on his preparation accom- 
panies him to the end of his active career. He is expected 
to be abreast of the thought of the day, to be equal to the 
best informed in the pews. The lay-worker is useful but 
the preacher is indispensable, and the minister who would 
command respect must be the teacher of his people, "able 
by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gain- 
sayers." "Beaten oil for the sanctuary" involves expense of 



'i'O THE EETIEED MINISTER 

both labor and money. He must feed his mind if he would 
have it healthy and vigorous; he must reap in many fields 
of knowledge; he must read the kind of reading that costs. 
His congregation demands that he shall maintain what they 
consider a respectable style of living and dress for himself 
and family. In the struggle to do this on inadequate means, 
and to do for children what educated parents feel it worth 
many privations to do, many a faithful wife's health has 
broken and she has gone, too soon, to her coronation. He 
is expected to lead, and as a rule does lead, in the benevo- 
lences of the Church and must be in the front rank of every 
public and private charity. Every one, from the agents of 
great religious or educational enterprises down to the ill- 
favored and malodorous tramp at the back door, selects him 
as the first victim. The entertaining of the congregation, so 
far as it has religious, charitable or reformatory aspect, falls 
to his lot. He must keep ''open house" as well as open heart 
to every good cause; and apparently no one ever thinks of 
the cost ! 

With the demand for charity, with the standard of living 
fixed for him by the people, with books and other literature 
for himself and for his family and with the education of 
children, to meet the demands of the situation and save any- 
thing from the ordinary salary is a fine problem in finance. 

The Methodist Mixistry 

These things are true of the ministry in general, and up 

to this point all ministers share in experiences incident to 

their calling. But there are some features of the position 

of a Methodist preacher of which I wish to speak particularly. 

First, The Methodist Preacher is an ecclesiastical soldier, 
pledged to ''come'' and ''go," "do this" and "do that" at the 
bidding of another. 

No other minister is in this position except the Eoman 
Catholic priest. But unlike the soldier who is educated, 
paid and pensioned by his government, and unlike the priest 
who is educated and provided for by his Church, the Meth- 
odist minister must provide his own education and equip- 
ment and has no definite assurance of support. He has no 
vote or voice as to his field of labor or the adjustment of his 
salary, and no recourse at law if the salary is not paid. In 



k 



WHY A SERVICE PENSION 71 

other communions the local church issues a call which the 
minister may entertain or not, as he pleases. If he enter- 
tains it, he is a party to the conditions under which his 
service shall be rendered, and if these do not suit him he 
may decline to serve; if the call is accepted, the church 
is bound to the fulfillment of the obligations assumed in the 
arrangements made. But the Methodist minister is in the 
hands of the powers that be, the Bishops, who, with the 
advice of the District Superintendents, appoint him to "do 
that part of the work which we advise, at those times and 
places which we judge most for His glory.^^ These powers 
often "gird him and carry him whither he would not." Ar- 
riving at his destination he is in the hands of the arbiters 
of his fate for the ensuing years who "do unto him what- 
soever they list.'^ Apparently the local church is the only 
party in interest, and decides his "allowance." He has neither 
vote nor veto as to the conclusion reached, nor appeal from it, 
nor recourse if his "allowance" is defaulted. He is an itin- 
erant whose principal duty is to itinerate whenever a dis- 
satisfied parishioner suggests it — a kind of Wandering Jew, 
whom any one at any time may command to move on. Pains 
and penalties are for him if he refuses or abandons the work 
assigned him, but there are no pains and penalties for the 
church which refuses to receive or to support him, unless 
it be the report of a "deficiency" and a change of preachers. 
The usage of a century has dulled our appreciation of the 
magnitude of this self-surrender; but if any man thinks it 
a small affair to put the direction of his life and the comfort 
and the well-being of his family at the disposal of another, 
let him try it! He can doubtless find a "captain of industry" 
willing to employ him on these terms, to come and go at 
command, to do such work and receive such pay at such time 
and in such measure as may suit the employer's fancy. 

Second, Other churches liave sustentation and liome mis- 
sion funds to assure the worker a definite support while he 
is developing neiv work. 

Methodism is evangelistic; it is a great missionary move- 
ment which is not delayed until the development of bases of 
supply. It does not wait for calls from organized churches 
with stipulated salaries, but goes out into the highways and 



72 THE RETIRED MINISTER 

hedges, into the mountains, the wilderness and the plains, 
to call men to salvation and to organize them into churches. 
In this way it has won the victories of the past and is to-day 
pushing its conquests among the scattered populations on 
the frontier, in mining and lumber camps and among the 
unchurched masses in our populous cities and their suburbs. 
Men of all creeds admit that Methodism is the most profound 
and potent fact in twentieth century Christianity. Even 
secular historians eulogize it; it is the very romance of reli- 
gious history. From an obscure society in the Established 
Church of England it has developed into a religious "world 
poAver'' whose influence is upon every other communion, 
whose agencies of conquest are in every land, and which 
must be reckoned in every list of the forces by which the 
kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdom of our 
Lord and of His Christ. 

"Who made it? The itinerant preachers who, in apostolic 
fashion, went everywhere preaching the Word; the men who 
are now called "worn-out," "superannuated," "retired," 
"Conference Claimants" ; who could always say of themselves 
with Paul, "As poor yet making many rich." The Meth- 
odist itinerancy is a matchless system of ministerial supply, 
but it is exjDcnsive; because a moving army cannot be sub- 
sisted at the same cost as a settled community of the same 
number of men. It was not devised to care for weak min- 
isters but to help weak churches and create new churches; 
and the heaviest burden and expense has fallen on the work- 
ers themselves. It is to be hoped that our great-hearted 
laymen will remember this, and when they glorify our 
itinerancy and clamor for a restoration of the time-limit 
will reflect that these things seem much easier when some 
one else is between the millstones and must bear the expense, 
and endure the hardship and the heart-break. In addition 
to this, our pastoral support is conceded to be below the 
average of other churches. Some of our ministers have 
largely increased their financial receipts and their oppor- 
tunity to work out large plans for effective church work, and 
perhaps many more could have done so, by going into the 
pulpits of other churches, while very few come to us. We 
appear to have the most expensive system of ministerial 
supply at the least expense to the churches, 



WHY A SERVICE PENSION 73 

Third, The Methodist Episcopal Church is more fear- 
fully afraid of wo7-ldliness in her minister than any other 
Church. 

The monastic "vow of poverty'^ is presumed to be on him 
and what is esteemed a virtue in other men is considered a 
discredit in him. Nnmeroiis doors to personal profit are 
open to men in all other professions or callings ; and in other 
denominations the acquisition of property is not regarded 
with jealousy as it is among us. The injunction that Meth- 
odism lays upon her minister is, "Spend and be spent in this 
work; give thyself wholly to it; no man that warreth entan- 
gleth himself with the things of this life, that he may please 
Him who hath called him to be a soldier.'^ She demands 
that he shall be "a man of one work"; that he shall not 
dabble in business or speculation; that he shall use his busi- 
ness ability in building and improving churches and par- 
sonages and paying old debts, and the Church does not refuse 
the preachers financial help in doing these things. She is 
even somewhat jealous of the increase of his private means 
by legitimate investment or natural growth of his own or 
his wife's patrimony; apparently fearing that God may not 
be able to keep him humble unless he is kept becomingly poor. 
The law of the Church, the traditions of more than a century, 
personal and popular sentiment and much itinerating com- 
bine to discourage business ventures for his own profit, so 
that it is the rare exception when he has been able to save 
enough to buy a home for himself and his aging wife; still 
rarer when, in addition to owning his house, he is able to 
meet their simple needs when retired from service; and 
should he have managed to save something, it is always 
tremendously overrated in the public mind. 

We need to divert our thought from the exceptional 
salaries, including those of the Bishops, who are worth all 
they receive, and direct it to the "average," all the time 
remembering that most salaries are below the average. In 
the leading Conferences embracing the large cities, the "aver- 
age salary" is not above the comfort line, and the "ordi- 
nary salary" is much below the safety line. In every State, 
even in the great cities, earnest and faithful preachers are 
trying to live on sums which would be rejected by the hod- 
carriers, 



U THE EETIEED MIXISTER 

Fourth, In the matter of age the Methodist Itinerant is 
at a disadvantage as compared with the settled pastor. 

The settled pastor ages with his congregation, witliont ex- 
citing special comment; he has aged in tJie service of his 
congregation, has bai)tized their children, married their 
young peoj^le and received them into the church, comforted 
their sick and dying and buried their dead. He is a personal 
friend as well as a spiritual adviser, and none but the coarsest 
would object to him on account of his gray hairs. But 
the Methodist itinerant stands revealed in all his grayness 
on the first Sunday after Conference, and the shock is some- 
times too severe to be recovered from. He is a stranger who 
has worn himself out in serving others, and the age objection 
comes with ease and bluntness, "We don't want that old 
man V and the judgment is seldom reversed. I do not insist 
that he should be kept beyond his year, though his ministry 
might be the best blessing kind Heaven could send them; I 
only ask that he shall be given "fair-play," and that he shall 
not be driven to "the Common." In the settled pastorate 
one may save something even from a small salary; but our 
itinerancy has begotten a desire for change for the mere sake 
of change, and frequent removals make it impossible to ac- 
quire a competency even by rigid economy, the savings of 
one pastorate being consumed in removing to another. No- 
where else in our own Church is the age-limit so early or so 
mercilessly drawn as in the pastorate. Men may serve ac- 
ceptably as Bishops or district superintendents, as editors or 
secretaries, long after they have passed the dead-line of pas- 
toral acceptability. A Bishop may become venerable, but 
the pastor becomes antiquated. AVhen signs of age appear 
the demand for young and more athletic men crowds him 
back into smaller charges and poorer pay under the specious 
pretext of "lighter work," in which the only lighter thing 
is the salary; for there is no harder work than that of cheer- 
ing a small or discouraged charge on to a solid footing and 
self-respect. So when the last charge has been served, the 
preacher is usually without income or j)roperty, and without 
the relationships that give standing in the community. He 
is a man without a home and almost without a country ! 

If the Church demands this kind of service, and keeps her 
ministers on the narrow margin of "a comfortable support" 



WHY A SERVICE PENSIOK 75 

(of the sufficiency of wliich the Church is sole judge), then 
she ought to continue the "^comfortable support" in the years 
of enforced retirement. The soldier of the Church, who has 
separated himself from the affairs of this life "that he may 
please Him who hath chosen him to he a soldier," who has 
turned away from other employments, however lucrative or 
pleasant, who has surrendered his right to go where he 
pleased, to do what he pleased, and to make the best bargain 
he could; who has given his life to the service of the Church 
in return for whatever the Church saw fit to give him, ought 
to be well cared for when his failing powers and "the good 
of the service" compel him to stand aside; and until that 
is done the Church has no right to object to him on account 
of his age. When such provision has been made he can be 
retired at a specified age, as in the case of the Bishops; for 
there are men who ought to be enjoying a well-earned rest, 
who are holding on to work beyond their powers, in prefer- 
ence to the semi-pauperism and semi-starvation of the "neces- 
sitous fund." Men who in the vigor of their manhood's 
powers rode forth to conquer the world for Christ, and on 
many a hard-fought field have won the spurs of the noblest 
knighthood, in the evening of life are reduced to the pitiful 
pass of saying, "Put me, I pray thee, into one of the priests' 
offices that I may eat a piece of bread !" 

The readjustment of ministerial support, due to changed 
financial conditions, has resulted in betterment for the man 
in active service. His claim receives consideration, his rights 
are more firmly settled, and default in payment of promised 
support has been recognized as a shame. But it has been 
disastrous to the Retired Ministers. They were overlooked 
and neglected so long by their brethren that they are sup- 
posed to have no right of ministerial support — nothing but 
the appeal of poverty to generosity. They have been con- 
sidered "necessitous cases" and their claims have been adminis- 
tered on the basis of need in disregard of immemorial rights 
and in defiance of ancient law and custom. They have been 
asked to come before quarterly conference and the Conference 
stewards and establish their "necessity" in order that they 
may receive their "allowance." How humiliating it is to 
compel one to sound the depths of his poverty, to make dis- 



• i 

76 THE EETIEED MIXISTEE * 

play of the leanness of his larder, the bareness of his ward- 
robe and the emptiness of his purse that he may be fed with 
the crumbs that fall from the table of a rich, powerful and 
prosperous Church, to whose interests he has given his best 
years and his best service. It is not charged that the people 
generally regard his support as a charity or contribute grudg- 
ingly to it. The ministers are worse offenders than the peo- 
ple; and as long as his claim is based on necessity rather 
than on service, and he must prove his need in order to make 
good his title to support, and receive his dole from a neces- 
sitous fund, it is not easy for him to avoid disquieting and 
humiliating thoughts. This condition has come about, not 
because any one purj^osed it, but through lack of considera- 
tion, "For evil is wrought by want of thought, as well as 
want of heart." It is the usual fate of him who is not present 
to look after his own interests. Being ^^out of sight/^ the 
Veteran Preacher has been "out of mind." 

When Bishoj^s Bowman and Foster were retired in 1896 
they were deeply moved; and a great wave of sympathetic 
feeling swept over the Church. This was not strange, for 
it is no small thing to lay down a loved life-work. But these 
Bishops retired, not only with the love of the Church and with 
her honors thick upon them, but with the assurance of 
worldly comfort for their remaining days. A similar scene, 
but with more elements of tragedy in it, is silently enacted 
every year by less prominent characters on a less conspicuous 
stage, when men no less tried and true, no less worthy of the 
love of the Church, lay down their life-work in the Annual 
Conferences to face the future with the certainty of scant 
comfort in their declining years. Is it asking too much 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, which, more than any 
other Church since the days of the apostles, owes her success 
to the labors and sacrifices of her ministry, that those who 
can no longer bear the burden and heat of the day shall 
be adequately j^rovided for ? 

We are not pleading for the endowment of a charity, but 
for partial payment of a debt on which judgment has been 
confessed by the Church. From 1876 to 1900 the Pittsburgh 
Conference reported $140,000 in deficiencies of salary, or, with 
interest on defaulted payments added, $250,000; and this 
Conference ranks with the best ! And these deficiencies 



WHY A SEEVICE PENSION" 77 

were charged up to men who were doing hard service on 
small salaries and to whom the loss of even a small sum 
required stern self-denial and suffering, to men whose incon- 
spicuous and ill-requited toil built up and strengthened the 
more prosperous churches. 

The Remedy 

The remedy. Almost a generation ago there began to l)c 
a profound and widespread conviction among thoughtful 
ministers and laymen that the provisions for the support of 
Eetired Ministers were not only a humiliating experience for 
the ministers themselves, but a dishonor to the Church which 
they had served so faithfully and with such scant financial 
recognition; and also that the methods by which their claims 
were ascertained and administered were as futile as the re- 
sults were inadequate; so they began to plan to remedy this 
shameful condition, rescue the claimant from his enforced 
position as a mere dependent, restore him to his birthright 
as a member of the ministerial force, and reestablish his right 
to a comfortable ministerial support. As a result many 
Annual Conferences devised plans for providing annuities 
based on years of service, with incidental help in all cases 
of emergency. From time to time the General Conference 
took a liand, until in 1904 a commission of picked men was 
ordered to study the subject and report at the ensuing ses- 
sion. With patient and painstaking labor they built up a 
system which was embodied in their report and adopted in 
1908. This system provides annuities based on years of 
effective service as its main feature; as Mr. Marvin Campbell 
well says, "putting a premium on continuing in the service 
rather than on entering it." While we urge every one not 
to postpone his giving, but to be "his own executor," yet we 
hope to be remembered in the last wills of many. 

We need a better sense of proportion in our giving. 
Though no other cause outranks this in the justice of its 
claim, yet in the past it has been postponed for every other 
cause. Within little more than a generation gifts to benevo- 
lences increased 1,420 per cent in the Pittsburgh Conference ; 
pastoral support, 365 per cent; distribution to claimants, 435 
per cent; a large part of such increase coming from ihQ 
dividends of The Book Concern, Chartered Fund and the 



78 THE EETIEED MIXISTEE 

Board of Conference Claimants, and from the income of 
our invested funds. Increase of ministerial support will be 
a great blessing to the Church in the improvement of minis- 
terial service ; for the greatest menace to the effectiveness of 
the Methodist minister is not laziness nor worldliness, but the 
fact that, with only a bare "support" during active years and 
with the certainty of scant fare when retired, he becomes the 
prey of distracting thoughts ; the needs of his family diverting 
him in part from the duties of his calling. The Church will 
never get the best service of a man in the pulpit or in the 
homes if he mast be perpetually wrestling with financial prob- 
lems, or be haunted with the specter of scant fare when his 
working days are ended; but with sufficient provision for his 
active service and assured comfort in retirement, the Church 
will have a right to demand that her ministers be "separated" 
men, given wholly to the work of God. 

AVe should evangelize the heathen world, but we ought not 
to forget those who evangelized us, or who are now seeking 
the lost sheep of the house of Israel. "We should pay our 
church-debts, but we should discharge in larger measure our 
debt to those "who through labor and travail preached unto 
us the gospel of God.'" AYe ought to give liberally to educa- 
tion that "the coming man" may be fully equipped for the 
great day in vdiich God shall give him his opportunity, but 
we ought not to neglect those who "with bare hands," mighty 
toil and heroic endurance prepared the way for him. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church, youngest but not least 
of ecclesiastical world-powers, cannot afford to have it said, 
"The hire of the laborers who have reaped down your 
harvests, which is of you kept back, crieth." 

AVashington, Pa. Charles AV. Miller. 



EEQUISITES OF A PEEACHEE 

A father's tenderness, a shepherd's care, 

A leader's courage which the cross can bear; 

A ruler's awe, a watchman's wakeful eye, 

A pilot's skill, the helm in storms to ply; 

A fisher's patience and a laborer's toil; 

A guide's dexterity to disembroil, 

A prophet's inspiration from above; 

A teacher's knowledge and a Saviour's love. 

— Bishop Ken. 




A DEPENDABLE 
PENSION 

MR. MARVIN CAMPBELL 

South Bend, Indiana, Treasurer of the Board of 
Conference Claimants 



A LAYMAN'S VIEW 

As a layman I approach the most important interest of the 
organic Church, its preachers. For every five eifective 
preachers there are one Retired Minister and one widow. The 
interests of those five effective preachers are so closely allied 
to those of the two Conference Claimants as to be almost 
inseparable. The Retired Minister or other Claimant should 
and can have his full disciplinary allowance, and not be com- 
pelled to be content with sixty per cent of it as now. 

ANNUAL CONFERENCE RESPONSIBILITY 

Responsibility for the care of the Retired Ministers rests 
almost wholly with the Annual Conferences ; because, in pro- 
viding for them each Annual Conference is a little dominion 
of its own clothed with autocratic power. It determines 
who are Claimants; fixes its own rules or conditions as to 
retirement; and may apportion to the churches any amount 
it may deem necessary for the support of its Claimants. No 
preacher can be retired except by Conference action. This 
applies to no other department of the Church ; and if Claimants 
are not fully paid, the responsibility rests almost wliolly on 
tlie Annual Conference. 

The law gives to the superannuate more consideration 
than to the effective minister, but he does not get as much 
consideration. The Annual Conference can apportion to 
the pastoral charges for the superannuates whatever amount 
it will, though it cannot fix or even suggest the amount for 
the support of the pastor, who must take his chances with 
the quarterly conference. 

79 



80 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

PAYMEXT OF A DEBT 

The superannuate and the widow are as surely entitled 
to payment as the effective Minister. There is no higher 
duty than the honest payment of honest debts. The discip- 
linary allotment to the Claimant is a debt, a part of the 
debt for ministerial support. "We have no religious right, 
no honest right, to refuse payment except on account of our 
al)8o]ute inability. But we have the abilitv both as to wealth 
and liberality; and although we have not yet fully demon- 
strated our ability as to organized and systematized meth- 
ods, it is both fair and gratifying to be able to say that we 
are in better condition, much better condition, than we were 
four years ago. 

SERVICE ANNUITIES 

The Discipline does not define the conditions which en- 
title Claimants to a service annuity. Each Annual Confer- 
ence should establish clean cut rules for its action. There 
should ])e well-defined conditions as to annuities, and they 
should be rigidly observed. The option to make a distribu- 
tion l)ased upon service or to make a distribution based on 
necessity could not be justified if all were entitled to years 
of service annuity; for to take away the right from those 
who have met annuity conditions would be unjust. It would 
create a deplorable uncertainty as to the annuity, no matter 
how faithful or how long the service had been. 

Each necessitous case must be passed upon individuall}^, 
but it should not be provided for by taking money from 
entitled annuitants, xlnnuities are paid in spirit and fact 
as ministerial support. Necessitous payments are in spirit 
and fact benevolences, commendable indeed, but nevertheless 
benevolences. x\nnuitants should not be taxed for benevo- 
lences. These should be met from other sources. The spirit 
of the annuity is not that of reward for having been a 
preacher, but rather for having continued to he a preacher 
until unfitted for the itinerant service. 

THE PREACHER ALONE INDISPENSABLE 

AVe can dispense with tall steeples, ornamented windows, 
elaborate decorations, carpeted aisles, rich-toned organs and 



A DEPENDABLE PENSION" 81 

paid choirs. We can dispense with any or all of these and 
still, if we have a preacher, we can have a church. Indeed 
we can dispense entirely with the church edifice, and if we 
have a preacher may hold meetings in school houses, public 
halls, parlors or kitchens. We can do without everything 
else, but we cannot do without the preacher. He is the one, 
and the only indispensable factor in the organic Church. 

Without fair assurance that they will not die paupers, 
the time may come when we will have a dearth of preachers; 
indeed I am not sure but it has come already. The aver- 
age salaries of Methodist Ministers permit no savings, and 
the secular world will not give employment to men of ad- 
vanced years. Generally the service annuity is the only hope 
of income after old age retirement. To enter the itinerant 
life with no fixed home is sacrifice, but to end such a life- 
work with no visible support is to he sacrificed. 

The budget for ministerial support, in which are included 
both the efiective minister and the superannuate, is the most 
important fund of the whole Church, because it secures and 
insures the one and the only indispensable factor of the 
organic Church. Lay hold of this fact. Take it home to 
your Annual Conference: The most important part of the 
budget of your church, the one indispensable fund in the 
whole Church is that for ministerial support, which includes 
the support of the Veteran Ministry. 

CAN THE SERVICE ANNUITY BE PAID IN PULL? 

Well, can we do what others have done, and are doing? 
The Methodist Church, Canada, the United Methodist 
Church and the Wesleyan Methodist Church of England, tlie 
Australian Methodist Church, pay full annuities to their 
Conference Claimants and have done so for many years. 
There is absolutely no failure. 

If we are as loyal to our Church, if we are as just to our 
Retired Ministers, if we are as capable administratively as 
are the Methodists of Canada, England or Australia, then 
the full annuity can be paid by us; for it is paid by them. 
We must admit indifference or imbecility or both unless we 
grant that this can be done. Take this home to your Ajinual 
Conference and see to it that it meets its responsibility. 



82 THE RETIRED MIXISTER 

The churches to which I have referred have well-defined 
conditions as to annuity. They also have a necessitous fund; 
but it is not created by taking money from the annuitant. 
The three hundred and fourteen superannuates of the Meth- 
odist Church, Canada, average thirty-four 3'ears of service. 
Some of our Annual Conferences average as low as twenty- 
six years, while others are as high as thirty-three years. In 
the Canadian Church no man retires upon annuity except 
after fort}" years of service, unless unfitted for itinerant work. 

Let me repeat, pajTiient cannot be made to the one not 
entitled to an annuity except by taking money from those 
who are entitled. What stronger call for systematic method 
as well as for the increase of funds? 

INDIANA METHODISTS 

Indiana Methodists will illustrate the average situation. 
They are listed as paying annual grand total of $400,000 to 
the various benevolences, yet the shortage due Conference 
Claimants last year was $23,000; a deficit of thirty-five per 
cent. A membership that pays $400,000 to various and, 
some of them, remote benevolences, can and will pay this 
$23,000 debt if it is properly brought to their notice with 
anything like the insistence or system of secular business. 
I question the religious right to pay the $400,000 to benevo- 
lences until the $23,000 debt to Conference Claimants has 
been paid; but all can be paid. 

Business prudence, common justice, respect for the law 
of the Church, fidelity to the aged fathers in Israel, all 
demand a full and dependable annuity. Then why are not 
sufficient funds provided ? Simply because of lack of method. 

I am told of a Methodist la}Tnan, much interested in 
Conference Claimants, who pays to various benevolences 
more than a thousand dollars per year and to Conference 
Claimants, five dollars and thirty-eight cents per year. He 
pays more than this to the Humane Society. He pays to 
the various benevolences because they are brought to his 
notice by earnest field agents. He pays to the Claimants 
his ratio share of the budget of his Church. Nobody asks 
him to pay more. He would undoubtedly pay liberally, if 
asked. There are hundreds of such cases ; able to give, ready 
to give, but uninformed. 



A DEPENDABLE PENSION 83 

A CONFERENCE CLAIMANTS' STEWARD 

Let me make a practical suggestion, which is by far the 
most important thing I have to say: Have a Laymen's Aid 
Society or, what is more practicable, broaden the scope of 
your Preacher's Aid Society or other Annual Conference 
organization and especially the work of the field agent, so 
as to give him not only the power to solicit endowment, but 
also to raise a current budget to meet the entire claimants' 
deficit that is not met by the apportionment. He will easily 
find ways to prevent any annual deficit and at the same time 
be more efficient as to endowments. Place upon your field 
agent the double duty of securing a present budget for the 
deficit as well as that of securing endowment, and your 
problem is solved. 

In every quarterly conference there should be a Confer- 
ence Claimants' steward. A Claimants' steward is even 
more logical than a district steward. There are thirteen 
times as many Conference Claimants as district superin- 
tendents. Why not have a steward to look after the thirteen 
aged and infirm Claimants as well as a steward to look after 
the one district superintendent? All are in the same class, 
and upon the same pay roll, that of ministerial support. 

ENDOWMENTS NECESSARY 

Endowment investment is needed for the Superannuate as 
surely as church and parsonage investment is needed for the 
pastor; the one for income, the other to save rent. The 
Methodist Episcopal Church has more than $225,000,000 
invested in churches and parsonages, and less than $4,000,000 
invested as endowments for three thousand Retired Ministers 
and three thousand widows. This is but two per cent of the 
investment for twenty per cent of the ministers; or if all the 
Claimants are counted (widows and orphans as well as Re- 
tired Ministers) for thirty per cent of all. 

I say that endowment is needed; but do not depend upon 
endowment income, for it may be many years before this will 
be sufficient. The Claimant must be provided for by the 
budget plan as surely as must the pastor, and a part of it at 
least must be raised upon the "ability to pay" plan, just as 
the salary of the effective preachers is raised upon the "abil- 
ity to give" plan. A flat assessment upon all of the churches 



84 THE EETIEED MIXISTER 

of the Conference is right in part, but the whole amount 
cannot be secured in this way, since some poor churches 
cannot give more than the}- are now giving. 

WILLS AND LIFE ANNUITY BONDS 

Wills and after death bonds are desirable, very desirable, 
but don't neglect the righteous poor while waiting for the 
death of the godly rich. 

SUMMAEY 

In conclusion : We do not lack money. We do not lack 
loyalty to the Church. We do not lack solicitude for the 
suj^erannuate. But Ave do lack method and an intense pur- 
pose to see the Retired Preacher through. Take this home to 
3'^our Annual Conference and see to it that it exercises its 
autocratic power and establishes right methods. 

THE NATIONAL CONA^ENTION OF LAYMEN 

summoned "The Whole Church to its Whole Task," and 
called for 

"The hearty and full support of those Boards which are 
created by tlie Church as the proper instruments for the 
application of the benevolences of the Church to the world's 
need." 

There is no greater or more important Benevolent Board 
in Methodism than the Board of Coi^ference Claimants^ 
and 23astors and pastoral charges as well as Methodist laymen 
will fail to do their whole task, unless they give to this 
Board their hearty and earnest support. 

The Convention recognized 

"THE SUPREME CAUSE OF THE RETIRED VET- 
ERANS FOR AN ADEQUATE SUPPORT IN THEIR 
OLD AGE." 

As a layman and speaking for and to the laymen I say 
with the Bishops : 

"Let the suj^reme cause have the Supreme Place in 1915." 

Marvin CxImpbell. 

South Bend, Ind. 



d 




THE CHURCH'S 

OBLIGATION TO 

THE VETERAN 

MINISTRY 

THE REV. HENRY H. SWEETS, D.D. 

Secretary Ministerial Relief 
Presbyterian Church in the U. S. 



Justice Demands It 

It is not a charity. When the Church ordains a man to 
the work of the ministry, she says, "Separate yourself from 
the sources of worldly gain. Minister to us in spiritual 
things and we will minister to you in material things." 

Judge Beaver well says : "When a minister has been 
solemnly ordained and thereby adopted by the Church, and 
has, by his ordination vows, voluntarily closed the avenues 
by which men ordinarily acquire a competency, and after- 
ward becomes physically or mentally disqualified for the 
proper discharge of the duties of his high office, or after a 
half century of devoted service is laid aside by the infirmities 
of age, he has a right morally — aye, and just as much right 
legally in tlie truest sense — to claim from the Church such 
provision at least as at the time of his ordination was made 
for those in like circumstances." 

Honor Enforces It 

The Church cannot afford to break this solemn pledge. A 
successful business man wrote : "I think we all appreciate 
to some extent this privilege and duty that God has laid on 
us, of taking care of His aged and infirm servants and their 
dependent ones, but I am afraid we fail to appreciate our 
individual responsibility in this matter. Our names are all 
on the bond and our Master is our endorser. Do ive propose 
to let His note go to protest f 

Dr. Pierson says: "It is an insult to call this charity. It 
is in the very highest sense a debt, and should be so honored 
as an imperative obligation ow(h1 to those wlu^ used their days 

85 



S6 THE EETIRED MINISTER 

of strength in the service of our Lord ; and no blessing can 
be expected on a Church which allows the veteran soldier 
of Christ to go down to his grave a dependent on charity, 
looking for a miserable pittance bestowed as on a beggar, for 
tlie bare subsistence of life." 

Gratitude Compels It 

The ministers who are on our rolls have turned their backs 
upon inviting fields. They have made themselves poor for 
the sake of Christ and His Church. The lonely widows 
and orphans have shared these privations with those who 
have fallen in the strife. They have sown the seed in liard 
and ofttimes unpromising fields and we to-day are reaping 
the splendid harvest. They laid the foundation deep and 
strong upon which we are erecting the temple of God. 

Self-Respect Requires It 

The farmer cares for the faithful old horse which has 
served him well. The house dog is fed from his master's 
table, even after he is too old to watch. "Soulless corpora- 
tions" are setting aside vast sums of money from which they 
are pensioning those who have assisted them in gaining their 
wealth. And shall not His Church, which professes to have 
His spirit, minister to the needs of God's aged saints who 
have denied themselves in the days of their strength in order 
that they might care for the poor, seek the lost, relieve the 
sorrowing, and lead to a blessed hope in God? 

Expediency Suggests It 

It is not expedient for the Church to let her worn-out 
servants come to pinching need and humiliating poverty. 
The Presbyterian General Assembly declared: "This is the 
day of opportunity. If the Church does not act promptly, 
not only will the cause of Ministerial Relief suffer, but the 
supply of candidates for the ministry will be seriously 
affected. If the father lies wounded on the field of battle 
uncared for, can we expect the son to fill his place in the 
depleted ranks?" And where could you find a missionary, 
either at home or abroad, laboring on an insufficient salary, 
who, should he know that if he fall by the way, the loving 
arms of the Church would be placed beneath him; or if he 



A THE CHURCIPS OBLIGATION 87 

be called to his reward, his wife and his little ones would be 
cared for by the Church, would not have more heart and 
zeal to put into his exacting labor? 

Sympathy Directs It 

The loneliness of these brave old warriors, shut up of ttimes 
within the four walls of their rooms, and the dependence of 
the widows and orphans who have shared the privations of 
those whose tired bodies rest in "the bivouac of the dead,'^ 
is a pathetic, mute appeal. They are not laggards. Gladly 
would they be again in the forefront of the battle. But God 
has shut them in. Added to their weakness and pain of body 
is the thought, which sometimes must come, that they are 
forgotten — orphaned by the Church. 

Religion Urges It 

It is of the very essence of Christianity. "Pure religion 
and undefiled before God and the Father is this: To visit 
the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep him- 
self unspotted from the world.'' To plead for these Veterans 
is not begging. It is counsel to do right that the people need 
— counsel for the lack of which the Church is daily forfeiting 
the blessings of duty done. Therefore, to the ministry, we 
would say: Shake ojf your false modesty. Help the Churcli 
to do right. Your aged brethren are suffering through a 
neglect for which the people are not responsible, since they 
do not know the facts. It is in your power to make the 
facts known, and so to help them. "^Yhoso seeth his brother 
liave need, and shutteth up liis compassion from him, how 
dwelleth the love of God in himf 

Obedience Enjoins It 

The support of the ministers of the gospel is not a matter 
left to the whims of men. It is according to the Divine order. 
God means that no minister shall be "entangled in a Hairs 
of this life," and to prevent this He made abundant provision 
for those set apart to the service of the sanctuary. Having 
no inheritance among the children of Israel, the Levites were 
assured from want from the cradle to the grave, and their 
widows and orphans after them. The abundant tithes and 
offerings, the levitical cities and their suburbs, and the 



88 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

sacredness of their calling assured to all those who stood 
before the Lord to minister to Him, the most ample, con- 
tinuous, and unfailing supply for all their wants. 

God declares through the apostle Paul : "Do ye not know 
that they which minister about holy things live of the things 
of the temple? And they which wait at the altar are par- 
takers with the altar? Even so hath the Lord ordained that 
they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.'' Time 
and again God said, "Take heed that thou forsake not the 
Levite so long as thou livest in the land.'' 

Lord, God of Hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget! 

The Love oe Christ Constrains Us 

We cannot now see Him with our eyes, or minister to His 
bodily needs, but He has identified Himself with His disci- 
ples. Then shall the King say, "Come, yQ blessed of my 
Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the 
foundation of the world: for I was an hungered, and ye 
gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was 
a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and ye clothed me; I 
was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came 
unto me. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least 
of these my hretliren, ye have clone it unto me." 

The Example oe Jesus Guides Us 

Our Saviour taught by His life as well as by the words of 
grace that flowed from His lips. He left a striking example 
in His care for His own mother. See Him on the cross 
enduring suffering, j^ain, death; dying for the sons of men. 
As He looks out over the vast crowd. His eye falls upon His 
mother. He sees the days of loneliness and want that must 
come to her. Hear His tender words, "Woman, behold thy 
son. John, behold iliy mother." If the Saviour, in anguish 
and pain and death, recognized His mother's need and made 
provision for it, should not the grateful Methodist Episcopal 
Church in these days of wonderful material prosperity care, 
even with lavish hands, for those w^ho, in a special sense, are 
the mothers and brothers and sisters of our Lord Jesus 
Christ? 

Henry H. Sweets. 

Louisville, Ky. 



i 




THE SHEPHERD WHO 
WATCHED BY NIGHT 

THOMAS NELSON PAGE 

From "The Land of the Spirit," Copyright, 1913, 
by Charles Scribner's Sons 

lUustrntions by Paul Julisn Meylan 



The place had nothing distinguished or even perhaps dis- 
tinctive about it except its trees and the tapering spire of 
a church lifting above them. It was not unlike a hundred 
other places that one sees as one travels through the country. 
It called itself a town ; but it was hardly more than a village. 
One long street, now paved on both sides, climbed the hill, 
where the old post-road used to run in from the country on 
one side and out again on the other, passing a dingy, large 
house with white-washed pillars, formerly known as the tav- 
ern, but now calling itself "The Inn." This, with two or 
three cross-streets and a short street or two on either side of 
the main street, constituted "the town." A number of good 
houses, and a few very good, indeed, sat back in yards digni- 
fied by fine trees. Three or four churches stood on corners, 
as far apart apparently as possible. Several of them were 
much newer and fresher painted than the one with the spire 
and cross; but this was the only old one and was generally 
spoken of as "The Church," as the rector was meant when the 
people spoke of "the preacher." It sat back from the street, 
in a sort of sordid seclusion, and near it, yet more retired, 
was an old mansion, also dilapidated, with a wide porch, 
much decayed, and to the side and a little behind it, an out- 
building or two, one of which was also occupied as a dwelling. 
The former was the rectory, and the smaller dwelling was 
where the old woman lived who took care of the rectory, 
cleaned up the two or three rooms which the rector used since 
his wife's death, and furnished him his meals. It had begun 
only as a temporary arrangement, but it seemed to work 
well enough and had gone on now for years and no one 
thought of changing it. If an idea of change ever entered 
the mind of any one, it was only when the old woman's 

89 



90 THE EETIEED MINISTEE 

grumbling floated out into the town as to the tramps who 
would come and whom the preacher would try to take care 
of. Then, indeed, discussion would take place as to the 
utter impractical)ility of the old preacher and the possibility 
of getting a younger and livelier man in his place. For 
the rest of the time the people were hopeless. The old 
preacher was not only past his prime but his usefulness. Yet 
Avhat could they do? No one else wanted him, and they 
could not turn him out. He was saddled on them for life. 
They ran simply by the old propulsion; but the church was 
going down, they said, and they were helpless. This had been 
the case for years and now^as the year neared its close it was 
the same. 

Such was the talk as they finished dressing the church for 
Christmas and made their way homeward — the few who still 
took interest enough to help in this way. They felt sorry for 
the old man who had been much in their way during the 
dressing, but sorrier for themselves. 

This had been a few days before Christmas and now it was 
Christmas eve. 

The old rector sat at his table trying to write his Christmas 
sermon. He was hopelessly behindhand with it. The table 
was drawn up close to the worn stove, but the little bare room 
was cold, and now and then the old man blew on his fingers 
to warm them, and pushed his feet closer to the black hearth. 
Again and again he took up his pen as if to write, and as 
often laid it doAvn again. The weather was bitter and the coal 
would not burn. There was little to burn. He wore his old 
overcoat, to save fuel. Before him on the table, amid a litter 
of other books and papers, lay a worn Bible and prayer-book 
open, and beside them a folded letter on which his eye often 
rested. Outside, the wind roared, shaking the doors, rattling 
the windows and whistling at the key-holes. Now and then 
the sound of a passing vehicle was borne in on the wind, and 
at intervals came the voices of boys shouting to each other 
as they ran b}'-. The old man did not hear the former, but 
when the boys shouted he listened till they had ceased, his 
thoughts turned to the past and to the two boys w^hom God 
had given him and had tlien taken i)ack to Himself. His 
gray face wore a look of deep concern, and, indeed, of dejec- 
tion, and his eye wandered once more to the folded letter on 



J 



THE SHEPHERD WHO WATCHED 91 

the table. It was signed "x\ Friend," and it was this which 
was responsible for the unwritten Christmas sermon. It was 
what the world calls an anonymous letter and, though couched 
in kindly terms, it had struck a dagger into the old man's 
heart. Yet he could not but say that in tone and manner 
it was a kind act. Certainly it had told the truth and if in 
tearing a veil from his eyes it had stunned him, why should 
he not face the truth ! 

He took the letter up again and reread it, not that he 
needed to read it, for he knew it by heart. Every sentence 
was seared into his memory. 

He reread it hoping to find some answer to its plain, blunt, 
undeniable statements, but he found none. It was all true, 
every word, from the ominous beginning which stated that 
the writer felt that he had "a clear duty to perform,'' down 
to the close when with a protestation of good-will he signed 
himself the old man's friend. 

"You must see, unless you are blind," ran the letter, "that 
your church is running down, and unless you get out and let 
the congregation secure a new and younger man, there will 
soon be no congregation at all left. No men come to church 
any longer and many women who used to come now stay 
away. You are a good man, but you are a failure. Your 
usefulness is past." Yes, it was true, he was a failure. His 
usefulness was past. This was the reason doubtless that no 
Christmas things had come this year — they wanted to let him 
know. It i^ained him to think it, and he sighed. 

"You spend your time fooling about a lot of useless things," 
continued the anonymous friend, "\isiting people who do not 
come to church, and you have turned the rectory into a liarl)or 
for tramps. 

"You cannot preach any longer. You are hopelessly behind 
the times. People nowadays want no more doctrinal points 
discussed; they want to hear live, up-to-date, practical dis- 
courses on the vital problems of the day, such as the Rev. 

Dr. delivers. His church is full." Tliis also was true. 

He was no longer able to preach. He had felt something oL' 
this himself. Now it came home to him like a blow on the 
head, and a deeper pain was the conviction which, long hov(M-- 
ing about his heart, now settled and took definite shapcy, that 
he ought to get out. But where could he go? He would 



92 THE RETIRED MINISTER 

have gone long since if he had kno'^^Ti where to go. He could 
not go out and graze like an old horse on the roadside. There 
was no provision made for such as he. No pensions were 
provided by his church for old and disabled clergj-men, and 
the suggestion made ni the letter had no foundation in his 
case: "You must or, at least, you should have saved some- 
thing in all this time.'^ 

This sounded almost humorous and a wintry little smile 
flickered for a moment about the wrinkled mouth. His salary 
had never been over six hundred dollars, and there were so 
many to give to. Of late, it had been less than this amount 
and not all of this had been paid. The smile died out and 
the old man's face grew grave again as he tried to figure out 
what he could do. He thought of one or two old friends to 
whom he could write. Possibly, they might know some 
country parish that would be willing to take him, though it 
was a forlorn hope. If he could but hold on till they invited 
him, it would be easier, for he knew how difficult it was for 
a clergyman out of a place to get a call. People were so suspi- 
cious. Once out, he was lost. 

At the thought, a picture of a little plot amid the trees in 
the small cemetery on the hill near the town slipped into his 
mind. Three little slabs stood there above three mounds, one 
longer than the others. They covered all that was mortal of 
what he had loved best on earth. The old man sighed and 
his face in the dim light took on an expression very far away. 
He drifted off into a reverie. Ah, if they had only been left 
to him, the two boys that God had sent him and had then 
taken back to Himself, and the good wife who had borne up 
so bravely till she had sunk by the wayside ! If he were only 
with them ! He used to be rebellious at the neglect that left 
the trains so deadly, but that was gone now. He leant for- 
ward on his elbows and gradually slipped slowly to his knees. 
He was on them a long time, and when he tried to rise he 
was quite stiff ; but his face had gTo-\m tranquil. He had been 
in high converse with the blessed of God and his mind had 
cleared. He had placed everything in God's hands, and He 
had given him light. He would wait until after Christmas 
and then he would resign. But he would announce it next 
day. The flock there should have a new and younger and 
abler shepherd. This would be glad tidings to them. 



THE SHEPHEKD WHO WATCHED 93 

He folded up the letter and put it away. He no longer 
felt wounded by it. It was of God^s ordaining and was to be 
received as a kindness, a ray of light to show him the path of 
duty. He drew his paper toward him and, taking up his pen, 
began to write rapidly and firmly. The doubt was gone, the 
way was clear. His text had come to his mind. 

''And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in 
the field, keeping watch over their flock hy night, and lo, the 
angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord 
shone round about them; and they were sore afraid. And 
the Angel said unto them. Fear not: for behold, I bring you 
good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For 
unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, 
which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; 
Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying 
in a manger." 

Unfolding the story, he told of the darkness that had settled 
over Israel under the Eoman sway and the formalism of the 
Jewish hierarchy at the time of Christ's coming, drawing 
from it the lesson that God still had shepherds watching 
over His flocks in the night to whom He vouchsafed to send 
His heavenly messengers. On and on he wrote, picturing the 
divine mission of the Eedeemer and His power to save souls, 
and dwelling on Christmas as the ever recurrent reminder 
of "the tender mercy of our God whereby the dayspring 
from on high hath visited us." 

Suddenly he came to a pause. Something troubled him. 
It came to him that he had heard that a woman in the town 
was very sick and he had intended going to see her. She had 
had a bad reputation ; but he had heard that she had reformed. 
At any rate she was ill. He paused and deliberated. At the 
moment the wind rattled the shutters. She did not belong 
to his flock or, so far as he knew, to any flock, and once when 
he had stopped her on the street and spoken to her of her evil 
life, she had insulted him. She had told him that he had 
better look after his own people instead of lecturing her. He 
turned back to his paper, pen in hand; but it was borne in 
on him that he was writing of watching over the flock by 
night and here he was neglecting one of his Father's sheep. 
He laid aside his pen and, rising, took down his old hat and 
stick, lit his lantern, turned on his lamp, and, shulUiug 



94 THE EETIliED MINISTER 

through the bare, narrow passage, let himself out at the 
door. As he came out on to the little porch to step down 
to the walk, the wind struck him fiercely and he had some 
difficulty in fastening the door with its loose lock; but this 
done he pushed forward. The black trees swayed and creaked 
above him in the wind, and fine particles of snow stung his 
withered cheeks. He wondered if the shepherds in the fields 
ever had such a night as this for their watch. He remem- 
bered to have read that snow fell on the mountains of Judea. 
It was a blustering walk. The wind felt as if it would blow 
through him. Yet he stumbled onward. 

At length he reached the little house on the back street in 
the worst part of the village, where he had heard the sick 
woman lived. A light glimmered dimly in an upper window 
and his knocking finally brought to the door a woman who 
looked after her. She was not in a good humor at being dis- 
turbed at that hour, for her rest had been much broken of 
late; but she was civil and invited him in. 

In answer to his question of how her patient was, she 
repliecl shortly: "No better; the doctor says she can't last 
much longer. Do you want to see her ?" she added presently. 
The old rector said he did and she waved toward the stair. 
"You can walk up." 

As they climbed the stair she added : "She said you'd come 
if you knew." The words made the old man warmer. And 
when she opened the door of the sick-room and said, 
"Here's the preacher, as you said," the faint voice of the in- 
valid murmuring, "I hoped you'd come," made him feel yet 
warmer. 

He was still of some use even in this parish. 

Whatever her face had been in the past, illness and suffer- 
ing had refined it. He stayed there long, for he found that 
she needed him. She unburdened herself to him. She was 
sorry she had been rude to him that time. She had been a 
sinful woman. She said she had tried of late to live a good 
life, since that day he had spoken to her, but she now found 
that she had not. She had wanted to be a believer and she 
had gone to hear him preach one day after that, but now she 
did not seem to believe anything. They told her that she 
must repent. She wanted to repent, but she could not feel. 
She was in the dark and she feared she was lost. The old 






THE SHEPHERD WHO WATCHED 95 

man had taken his seat by her side and he now held her hand 
and soothed her tenderly. 

"Once, perhaps/' he said doubtfully, "though God only 
knows that, but certainly no longer. Christ died for you. 
You say you wanted to change, that you tried to ask God's 
pardon and to live a better life even before you fell ill. Do 
you think you could want this as much as God wanted it? 
He put the wish into your heart. Do you think He would 
now let you remain lost? Why, He sent His Son into the 
world to seek and to save the lost. He has sent me to you 
to-night to tell you that He has come to save you. It is 
not you that can save yourself, but He, and if you feel 
that it is dark about you, never mind — the path is still 
there. One of the old Fathers has said that God sometimes 
puts His children to sleep in the dark." 

"But I have been — You don't know what I have been," 
she murmured. The old man laid his hand softly on her 
head. 

"He not only forgave the Magdalen, for her love of Him, 
but He vouchsafed to her the first sight of His face after His 
resurrection." 

"I see," she said simply. 

A little later she dozed off, but presently roused up again. 
A bell was ringing somewhere in the distance. It was the 
ushering in of the Christmas morn. 

"What is that?" she asked feebly. 

He told her. 

"I think if I, were well, if I could ever be good enough, I 
should like to join the church," she said. "I remember being 
baptized — long ago." 

"You have joined it," he replied. 

Just then the nurse brought her a glass. 

"What is that?" she asked feebly. 

"A little wine." She held up a bottle in wliich a small 
quantity remained. 

It seemed to the old preacher a sort of answer to his 
thought. "Have you bread here?" he asked the young 
woman. She went out and a moment later brought liim a 
piece of bread. 

He had often administered the early communion on Christ- 
mas morning, })ut never remembered a celebration that liad 



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HER BREAST TOOK ON THE LINES OF A BABE 





THE SHEPHEED WHO WATCHED 97 

seemed to him so real and satisfying. As he thought of the 
saints departed this life in the faith and fear of God, they 
appeared to throng abont him as never before, and among 
them were the faces he had known and loved best on earth. 

It was toward morning when he left; as he bade her good- 
by he knew he should see her no more this side of Heaven. 

As he came out into the night the snow was falling, but 
the wind had died down and he no longer felt cold. The street 
was empty, but he no longer felt lonely. He seemed to have 
got nearer to God's throne. 

Suddenly, as he neared his house, a sound fell on his ears. 
He stopped short and listened. Could he have been mistaken ? 
Could that have been a baby's cry? There was no dwelling 
near but his own, and on that side only the old and unoc- 
cupied stable in the yard whence the sound had seemed 
to come. A glance at it showed that it was dark and he was 
moving on again to the house when the sound was repeated. 
This time there was no doubt of it. A baby's wail came clear 
on the silence of the night from the unused stable. A 
thought that it might be some poor foundling flashed into 
his mind. The old man turned and, stumbling across the 
yard, went to the door. 

"Who is here ?" he asked of the dark. There was no answer, 
but the child wailed again and he entered the dark build- 
ing, asking again, "Who is here?" as he groped liis way for- 
ward. This time a voice almost inarticulate answered. 
Holding his dim little lantern above his head, he made his 
Avay inside, peering into the darkness, and presently, in a 
stall, on a lot of old litter, he descried a dark and shapeless 
mass from which the sound came. Moving forward, he bent 
down, with the lantern held low, and the dark mass grad- 
ually took shape as a woman's form seated on the straw. A 
patch of white, from which a pair of eyes gazed up at him, 
became a face and, below, a small bundle clasped to her 
breast took on the lines of a babe. 

"What are you doing here?" he asked, breathless with as- 
tonishment. She shook her head wearily and her lips moved 
as if to say, "I didn't mean any harm." But no sound came. 
She only ti'ied to fold the babe more warmly in her shawl. 
He took off his overcoat and wrapped it around her. "Come," 
he said firmly. "You must come with me," he added kindly; 



98 THE EETIEED MIXISTER 

then, as she did not rise, he put out his hand to lift her, but, 
instead, suddenly set down the lantern and took the babe 
gently into his aims. She let him take the child, and rose 
slowly, her eyes still on him. He motioned for her to take 
the lantern and she did so. And they came to the door. He 
turned up the walk, with the babe in liis arms, and she going 
before him with the lantern. The ground was softly carpeted 
with snow, the wind had died down, but the clouds had dis- 
appeared and the trees were all white, softly gleaming, like 
dream-trees in a dreamland. The old man shivered slightly, 
but not now with cold. He felt as if he had gone back and 
held once more in his anns one of those babes he had given 
back to God. He thought of the shepherds who watched by 
night on the Judean hills. "It must have been such a night 
as this," he thought. 

As they reached his door he saw that some one had been 
there in his absence. A large box stood on the little porch 
and beside it a basket filled with things. So he had not been 
forgotten after all. The milkman also had called and for his 
customary small bottle of milk had left one of double the 
usual size. When he let himself in at the door, he took the 
milk with him. So the shepherds might have done, he 
thought. 

It was long before he could get the fire to burn; but in 
time this was accomplished; the room grew warm and the 
milk was warmed also. The baby was quieted and was soon 
asleep in its mother's lap. And as the firelight fell from the 
open stove on the child, in its mothei'^s arms before the 'stove, 
the old man thought of a little picture he had once seen in 
a shop window. He had wanted to buy it, but he had never 
felt that he could gratify such a taste. There were too many 
calls on him. Then, as she appeared overcome with fatigue, 
the old man put her with the child in the only bed in the 
house that was ready for an occupant and, returning to the 
little living-room, ensconced himself in his arm-chair by the 
stove. He had meant to finish his sermon, but he was con- 
scious for the first time that he was xery tired. But he was 
also very happy. "When he awoke he found it was quite late. 
He had overslej^t and though his breakfast had been set out 
for him, he had time only to make his toilet and to go to 
church. The mother and child were still asleep in his room. 



THE SHEPHEED WHO WATCHED 99 

the babe folded in her arm, and he stopped only to gaze on 
them a moment and to set the rest of the milk and his break- 
fast where the young mother conld find it on awaking. Then 
he went to church, taking his half-finished sermon in his worn 
case. He thought with some dismay that it was unfinished, 
but the memory of the poor woman and the midnight com- 
munion, and of the young mother and her babe, comforted 
him ; so he plodded on bravely. When he reached the church 
it was nearly full. He had not had such a congregation in a 
long time. And they were all cheerful and happy. The pang 
he had had as he remembered that he was to announce his 
resignation that day was renewed, but only for a second. 
The thought of the babe and its mother, warmed and fed in 
his little home, drove it away. And soon he began the service. 
He had never had such a service. It all appeared to him 
to have a new meaning. He felt nearer to the people in the 
pews than he ever remembered to have felt. They were more 
than ever his flock and he more than ever their shepherd. 
More, he felt nearer to mankind, and yet more near to those 
who had gone before — the innumerable company of the re- 
deemed. They were all about him, clad all in white, glister- 
ing like the sun. The heavens seemed full of them. When 
he turned his eyes to the window the whole earth seemed 
white with them. The singing sounded in his ears like the 
choiring of angels. He was now in a maze'. He forgot the 
notice he had meant to give and went straight into his ser- 
mon, stumbling a little as he climbed the steps to the pulpit. 
He repeated the text and kept straight on. He told the story 
of the shepherds in the fields watching their flocks when the 
Angel of the Lord came upon them, and told of the Babe in 
the manger who was Christ the Lord. He spoke for the 
shepherds. He pictured the shepherds watching through the 
night and made a plea for their loneliness and the hardship 
of their lives. They were very poor and ignorant. But they 
had to watch the flock and God had chosen them to be His 
messengers. The wise men would come later, but now it was 
the shepherds who first knew of the birth of Christ the Lord. 
He was not reading as was his wont. It was all out of his 
heart and the eyes of all seemed to be on him — of all in pews 
and of all that innumerable host about him. 

He was not altogether coherent, for he at times appeared 




"DOX'T you HEAK them singing? . . . YOU MUST SING TOO." . . . BEFORE THE 
HYMN WAS ENDED THE OLD SHEPHERD HAD JOINED THE HEAVENLY CHOIR 



THE SHEPHERD WHO WATCHED 101 

to confuse himself with the shepherds. He spoke as if the 
message had come to him, and after a while he talked of 
some experiences he had had in finding a child in a stable. 
He spoke as though he had really seen it. "And now/' he 
said, "this old shepherd must leave his flock, the message has 
come for him." 

He paused and looked down at his sermon and turned the 
leaves slowly, at first carefully and then almost aimlessly. 
A breath of wind blew in and a few leaves slid off the desk 
and fluttered down to the floor. "I have been in some fear 
lately,'' he said, "but God has appeared to make the way 
plain. A friend has helped me, and I thank him." He looked 
around and lost himself. "I seem to have to come to the 
end," he said, smiling simply with a soft, childish expression 
stealing over and lighting up his wan face. "I had some- 
thing more I wanted to say, but I can't find it and — I can't 
remember. I seem too tired to remember it. I am a very 
old man and you must bear with me, please, while I try." He 
quietly turned and walked down the steps, holding on to the 
railing. As he stooped to pick up a loose sheet from the 
floor he sank to his knees, but he picked it up. "Here it is," 
he said with a tone of relief. "I remember now. It is that 
there were shepherds abiding in the fields, keeping watch over 
their flocks by night, and the light came upon them and the 
glory of the Lord shone round about them and they were sore 
afraid, and the Angel said unto them: 

'''Fear not: for behold, I bring you good tidings of great 
joy, wJiich shall be to all people. For unto you is horn 
this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ tlie 
Lord.' " 

They reached him as he sank down and, lifting him, placed 
him on a cushion taken from a pew. He was babbling softly 
of a babe in a stable and of the glory of the Lord that shone 
round about them. "Don't you hear them singing ?" he said. 
"You must sing too; we must all join them." At the sug- 
gestion of some one, a woman's clear voice struck up, "While 
shepherds watched their flocks by night," and they sang it 
through as well as they could for sobbing. But before tlic 
hymn was ended the old shepherd had joined the heavenly 
choir and gone away up into Heaven. 

As they laid him in the chamber on the hill opening to 



102 THE EETIRED MINISTER 

the sunrise, the look in his face showed that the name of 
that chamber was Peace. 

They talk of him still in his old parish, of the good he did, 
and of his peaceful death on the day that of all the year sig- 
nified birth and life. Nothing was ever known of the mother 
and babe. Only there was a rumor that one had been seen 
leaving the house during the morning and passing out into 
the white-clad country. And at the little inn in the town 
there was vague wonder what had become of the woman and 
her baby who applied for shelter there that night before and 
was told that there was no place for her there, and that she 
had better go to the old preacher, as he took in all the tramps. 



THE VILLAGE CLERGYMAN 
Goldsmith 

'A man he was to all the country dear, 

And passing rich with forty pounds a year; 

Remote from towns he ran his godly race, 

Nor e'er had changed, nor wished to change his place; 

Unpracticed he to fawn, or seek for power, 

By doctrines fashioned to the varying hour. 

For other aims his heart had learned to prize, 

More skilled to raise the wretched than to rise. 

'His house was known to all the vagrant train, 

He chid their wanderings, but relieved their pain; 

Careless their merits or their faults to scan, 

His pity gave ere charity began. 

Thus to relieve the wretched was his pride. 

And e'en his failings leaned to virtue's side; 

But in his duty, prompt at every call. 

He watched and wept, he prayed and felt for all; 

And, as a bird each fond endearment tries 

To tempt its new-fledged offspring to the skies, 

He tried each art, reproved each dull delay. 

Allured to brighter worlds, and led the way. 

"At church, with meek and unaffected grace, 
His looks adorned the venerable place; 
Truth from his lips prevailed with double sway. 
And fools, who came to scoff, remained to pray. 
E'en children followed, with endearing wile. 
And plucked his gown, to share the good man's smile. 
His ready smile a parent's warmth expressed. 
Their welfare pleased him, and their cares distressed; 
To them his heart, his love, his griefs were given. 
But all his serious thoughts had rest in heaven." 



SHOULD MINISTERS 
MARRY? 

MARION HARLAND 

Copyright, 1913, by The Continent 
Reprinted by Permission 



Paul, the itinerant missionary, contends stoutly for his 
right to lead about a wife (inferentially, if it should please 
him so to do), quoting in his support of the claim the ex- 
ample of Cephas, etc. That the right was admitted without 
cavil in the early church we gather from further remarks 
relative to the wives of bishops and deacons. 

Martin Luther gave unequivocal testimony to his views 
upon the subject of a married clergy by wedding a nun who 
had, like himself, abjured the conventual life. From that day 
onward the theory of the protesting Church has not wavered 
with respect to the right and practice. Suggestions from 
irresponsible sources to the effect that he wars most effectively 
who carries light impedimenta are frowned down when 
directed churchward. An unwritten law encourages, if it 
does not enjoin upon, the young minister to take unto him- 
self a wife betimes as part of his equipment for the home or 
foreign field. 

The consensus of parish or community is that the min- 
istry of reconciliation — the noblest of what are classed as the 
"learned professions" — is involved with social and domestic 
obligations that pertain to no other calling. For the right 
discharge of these, we are informed by the Church at large 
and by individual members, a married man is better fitted 
than a bachelor. The minister's wife is his helpmeet in an 
especially sacred sense. The Christian home ruled by the 
united twain is an object lesson no congregation should lack. 

A FINE THEORY 

So far, so fair ! From the Protestant viewpoint the theory 
is flawless, the world and human nature being not many de- 
grees from the status of Paul's times. Will the reader who is 

103 



104 THE EETIRED MINISTER 

supposed to be versed in the Scriptures bear with me when 
I ask him to read as for the first time the advice in detail 
given by the chiefest of apostles to his "own son in the faith" 
called through his instrumentality to the bishopric of 
Ephesus ? 

A PERFECT PARSON" 

"A bishop, then, must be blameless, tlie husband of one 
wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, 
apt to teach; not given to wine; no striker; not greedy of 
filthy lucre, but patient; not a brawler; not covetous; one 
that ruleth well his own house, having his children in sub- 
jection with all gravity (for if a man know not how to rule 
his own house, how shall he take care of the house of God?). 
Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into 
condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must have a good 
report of them which are without, lest he fall into reproach 
and the snare of the devil." 

The whole epistle is a masterpiece of sound common-sen- 
sible counsel, informed with paternal tenderness. Student and 
licentiate of the twentieth century can find nowhere a better 
manual of faith and practice. Yet we catch ourselves specu- 
lating as to the probabilities of Timothy's marriage. There 
is no fatherly word for the bride among the greetings to 
Aquila and Priscilla and other friends in the second letter. 

However this may have been, the picture of the well or- 
dered parsonage and the portrait of the master thereof have 
not been improved upon by modern writers upon clerical life 
and clerical manners. Happy is that parish that hath such ! 

MUZZLING THE OX 

AVe have no allusion to the high price of foodstuffs in 
Ephesus, yet practical Paul does not omit the truth that 
human life requires material sustenance. Harking back, 
once and again, to the Mosaic injunction, "Thou shalt not 
muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn," he declares 
plainly: "The laborer is worthy of his hire," and "They 
which preach the gospel shall live by the gospel." Lest there 
may be some misapprehension as to the source from whence 
this same "living" is to come, we are admonished in another 
epistle: "Let him that is taught in the word communicate 
to him that teacheth in all good things." 



SHOULD MINISTERS MARKY? 105 

Why multiply texts to prove what is theoretically a fore- 
gone conclusion? The obligation of the Church to provide 
for those who minister unto them in holy things has been 
recognized in all ages. The right of the minister to marry 
is as frankly acknowledged. In a majority of churches the 
expediency of his marriage is openly urged. Almost as bind- 
ing in civilized communities is the demand that the pastor 
shall be an educated gentleman, and his wife a woman of cul- 
ture and refinement. Paul sets the pace here, too. "He must 
have a good report of them which are without.^^ The parish 
must never be ashamed of him or his family. Have you ever 
thought of the deep meaning wrapped up in the phrase 
"given to hospitality"? We express it in part when we say 
that "the minister keeps an open house." 

A MIRACLE OF GRACE 

To condense the requisitions : He must live in a house large 
enough to accommodate wayfaring brethren and their fam- 
ilies; to entertain church societies and "delegates." He must 
set a decent table; his children must be as well clad as their 
playfellows and attend good schools. The parsonage is a city 
set on a hill, and the walls might be of glass, so open to the 
eye of all men and women are the movements and manners 
of the inmates. 

Yet let me quote from a paper issued by the church sus- 
tentation society of a leading denomination in iVmerica and 
abroad : 

"Every minister who is duly installed over a church and 
congregation of our communion is promised a 'competent 
worldly maintenance that he may be free from worldly cares 
and avocations.' " It is significant that the word "avoca- 
tions" is used in its legitimate meaning: "The act of calling 
aside, or diverting from one's proper calling or business." 

EIGHT HOURS AND OVERTIME 

"The competent worldly maintenance" is to secure all the 
energies and time of the laborer for the vineyard he is hired 
to tend. Your mill hand "knocks off" your work at 5 or (5 
o'clock, and if he be a wide-awake fellow, he turns many an 
honest penny during the evenings and half holidays. The 
bookkeeper may, without let or hindrance, write up other 



106 THE EETIEED MINJSTER 

ledgers than your own at home. There are scores of ways 
by which tlie professed hireling may eke out his wages. Phy- 
sicians, lawyers and merchants ask nobody's permission as to 
the employment of their spare hours. "One man, in his time, 
plays many parts" — and perchance quadruples his income, 
but our ordained and installed Ixion is bound to the wheel 
of his "sacred office'' until his "period of usefulness is at an 
end." (0, familiar and fateful phrase!) 

We have, then, a finely tempered instrument of the most 
approved pattern, which is not to be diverted to any use other 
than that designated in the contract. The natural sequence 
would seem to be that a fair and equitable price should be 
paid for it. In reply, I append the comment of another 
writer upon this topic : "There is bitter humor in the ^Form 
of Government' just quoted when the ^competent worldly 
maintenance' is a third less than a mechanic's wage." 

NEARING THE BREAD LINE 

The bitterness is made pungent and the humor of the situ- 
ation lessened by the statement drawn from the circular letter 
put forth l)y the secretary of a ministerial relief association 
connected with an influential and, in the main, wealthy com- 
munion : "The average salary paid to our ministers in the 
active pastorate is $600 per annum." 

Of course he cannot support life upon that unless he be a 
bachelor and his residence be in a mining camp or a moun- 
tain region where the barest necessaries of life must suffice to 
supply his Avants. If a family man must get along upon less 
than a mechanic's wage, he is helped out by donation parties 
and occasional boxes of cast-off clothing from richer churches. 
In plain English, he and his are paupers as essentially as if 
they were lodged in the almshouse. Said a rich woman to me 
with the air of one who, by her deeds of mercy, makes her 
calling and election sure: "I always give liberally to the 
Church and other worthy charities. You know, 'Whoso 
giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord.' As I often say to my 
husband, 'We cannot ask better security.' " 

"Church and other charities !" That is oftener the tone 
of the rank and file of Protestant Church members than we 
are willing to admit. All that they contribute to the pastor's 
support over and above the meager stipend we have indicated 



SHOULD MINISTERS MARRY? ' 107 

is set down to the Lord's account — and on the debit side of 
the sheet. Interest is compounded according to a system 
patented by themselves. 

LAGGING BEHIND THE WORLD 

Philanthropists write and declaim from the rostrum 
against the penuriousness of a government that pays its 
armed defenders a "beggarly pittance." The soldier grumbles 
less loudly in the knowledge that half pay awaits him at the 
close of his term of service and a pension for his family at 
his death. Our minister may be turned out of office many 
years earlier than his blue-coated brother, and absolutely 
penniless so far as any provision made by the Church goes. 
By sailing closely to the wind he may have kept his family 
in food and clothes. He has not been able to save a dollar 
even from the stray checks and greenbacks doled out to him 
patronizingly by friend and parishioner. In his most pros- 
perous estate, he and his thrifty helpmeet have achieved only 
shabby gentility. Eor the remainder of their days they drop 
the tattered cloak of gentility and settle down to the unequiv- 
ocal squalor of confessed poverty. And this at an age when 
his college mates are touring the continent in their motor 
cars and eating the plum cake of carelessness ! 

Do not plead that the Church, as a whole, is ignorant of 
the enormity of this injustice. The Church does not concern 
itself with improvident families unless they belong to the 
"interesting poor" — the class for which we build settlement 
houses and association halls and welfare work homes. 

EOR LOVE OR MONEY 
If poor young ministers will marry poor girls they must 
take what is coming to the educated improvident. After all, 
the outspoken old minister was not so far wrong as we are 
inclined to think — or say — who advised the graduating class 
of theologues to pick out wives who are "pious and have a 
little property." It is fast becoming fashionable to deprecate 
the marriage of ministers who have nothing but their salaries 
to depend upon. Careful students of varied economies do not 
hesitate to point out the superior efficiency of Roman Catholic 
missionaries, and to attribute their success to their celibacy. 
There is no disguising the fact that wives and chihlren ai'e 



108 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

impedimenta that cannot 1)8 cast aside when duty calls to 
another field. These are spokesmen whose deliverances are 
not indorsed by the Church. On the contrary, we still swear 
audibly by Paul and content our consciences with spasmodic 
relief of suffering consequent upon ill-advised wedlock. Is it 
possible that underlying the apparent apathy lurks the belief 
that more and better work is accomplished by the celibate 
than by the married minister? That, instead of overt advo- 
cacy of a tenet that might scandalize oldtime Christians and 
cause the enemy to blaspheme, we foresee that the end will be 
as surely gained by slow starvation? 

MUSIC AXD MINISTRY 

Before I, who write thus, am accused of treason to my faith 
and Church, look the ugly facts square in the face and say 
upon wliat other hypothesis they may be explained away. 
Protestants are not niggardly in other directions. There is 
hardly a church in any city that does not expend more upon 
music in one year than it subscribes in three years for "min- 
isterial relief and the ministers' widows' fund." A single 
memorial window that is criticized as a blotch upon the wall 
of the sanctuary costs treble the sum asked for by the incum- 
bent who demurs m spirit at the task of soliciting funds for 
the "sustentation" of his needy brethren. May be because 
an echo of the old epitaph sounds through the chambers of his 
soul : "As we are now, so must you be !" 

Denis Wortman, D.D., the able secretary of the Society for 
Ministerial Relief of the Reformed (Dutch) Church in Amer- 
ica, has a pertinent and feeling word upon the unwillingness 
of the clergyman to press home upon the hearts of his hearers 
the plain truth of the attitude of the Church upon this sub- 
ject : "Do you know that it does grind upon us to be asking 
help for men in our own profession ? It seems to humiliate ! 
It seems to lower the dignity of the ministry ! Possibly with 
some it seems to bring our sacred calling into contempt. ^\e 
are exposing poverties many of our clergy are painfully en- 
deavoring to conceal for the Master's sake." 

EARLY RETIREMENT 
From a report compiled by the same writer, I quote : "The 
number of annuitants increases from year to year, and will 



SHOULD MINISTEES MARRY? 109 

continue to do so with increase of prices of living and the 
earlier retirement of ministers from active service." 

There is pregnant meaning in that last clause. It is set 
forth, without apology for the bald statement, in a govern- 
ment report issued by the Bureau of Education. It is headed 
boldly by the journal copying the report: "Number Who 
Seek Protestant Pulpits Constantly Decreasing. A remark- 
able decrease in the number of Protestant ministers gradu- 
ated from the universities of the country is shown in a cur- 
rent report of the United States Bureau of Education. 

"It is plain, says the report, that educated men no longer 
seek tlie cloth as they did when the nation was younger. It 
may mean much or little that the percentage of ministers 
among the graduates of typical colleges has declined from a 
proportion of sixty or seventy per cent to less than ten per 
cent. An examination of the figures collected at the close 
of the nineteenth century from thirty-seven representative 
colleges discloses the fact that the ministry takes between 
five and six per cent of the university graduates, which marks 
the lowest point for that profession during the two and one 
half centuries of American college history." 

Put side by side with these statements the certainty that 
the decrease in the number of candidates for work in a fast 
widening field, white for the harvest, is as well known to the 
aforesaid Protestant Church as the simplest fact in natural 
history, and that it does not incite it to amendment of the 
wrong which has brought it about — what deduction can be 
drawn from such knowledge and apathy? As a body, the 
Church is determined not to maintain married men in tlie 
ministry. Actions, more eloquent than protestations, give 
the lie to the professed approval of home sketched by Paul 
and nominally indorsed by professors of the Protestant faith. 

CROWNED WITH CARE 

It is a favorite trick of business and political organizations 
to "freeze out" unpopular members rather than eject them 
openly. A Church that affects to condemn papal principles 
and usages is quietly freezing out the married clergy in its 
own faith. Without abating one jot or one tittle of belief in 
the obligation to spread the gospel of salvation to earth's 
remotest bounds, we insist, practically, that such work must 



110 THE EETIRED MINISTER 

be done by a man who is willing to resign the joys of home, 
the companionship of wife and child, and to bring personal 
requirements down to hermit fare and squatter's hut, while 
he is adjudged capable of discharging "acceptably" the duties 
of the sacred office. It has passed into a proverb that the 
i^astor crosses the dead line at fifty. His hoary head is dis- 
grace and displacement instead of glory. 

RESIGNATION OR WHAT 

^^We kinder lost our relish for our preacher,'' said the dea- 
con of a colored church, "so we done sent in his resignation." 
The same is done in effect yearly in hundreds of Protestant 
churches made up of his superiors in race and education. 
Freezing him out is equivalent to sending in his resignation. 
If he be celibate, he may have taken out a "limited insurance 
policy" upon his life and scraped together the premium year 
iiy year. He has timed it to fall due at fifty, or therea])outs, 
and (if he l)e single) he may have enough to keep the life in 
him for the rest of his weary, because idle, days. 

The tale is trite, but none the less pitiful because it is so 
often told. Sensational newspapers set "scareheads" above 
announcements of the rapidly thinning ranks of the Church 
militant. The Church is itself apparently content to let the 
logic of events demonstrate the necessity of a celibate clergy, 
if the evangelization of the world is to go on. 



NATIONAL MONUMENTS 
Hexry van Dyke 

Count not the cost of honor to the dead! 

The tribute that a mighty nation pays 

To those who loved her well in former days 
Means more than gratitude for glories fled; 
For every noble man that she hath bred, 

Immortalized by art's immortal praise. 

Lives in the bronze and marble that we raise, 
To lead our sons as he our fathers led. 
These monuments of manhood, brave and high. 

Do more than forts or battle ships to keep 
Our dear-bought liberty. They fortify 

The heart of youth with valor wise and deep; 
They build eternal bulwarks and command 
Eternal strength to guard our native land. 




NOT CHARITY BUT 
JUSTICE 

RETIRING PENSIONS AND 
ORGANIZED CHRISTIANITY 

BISHOP 
RICHARD J. COOKE, D.D., LL.D. 



I have been a Gospel Minister for forty years and know 
the hardships of the itinerant's life. After I had been 
preaching for thirty years, if anything had happened to me 
there would not have been a roof to cover my wife and chil- 
dren. I worked for small pay, and on my first circuit, which 
was nearly one Imndred miles long and as wide as I cared to 
make it, my horse died in the cotton field, and I walked. We 
had no members and I had to make them, and received as 
salary fifty dollars and a pair of socks. I do not need to 
have my sympathies stirred ; memory will do that for me. 

I would change the emphasis in pleading for the Retired 
Ministers from charity to justice. The provisions for their 
comfort are now placed upon the ground of support, though 
for a long time it was put on the ground of charity; an 
appeal which Preachers learned to scorn. What the Retired 
Ministers need is not charity, but justice. 

I would go further and say that it is not so much a ques- 
tion of the support of the ministry as it is a question of the 
maintenance of organized religion. When you sift it down 
to the real basis of the proposition, this will stand out clearly 
to every thinker who studies the processes and workings of 
social forces. The question of a dependable pension for Re- 
tired Ministers concerns the permanence of organized religion. 

It is a platitude that there never was an age like this; but 
it is a tremendous platitude. There never was an age when 
so much was required of human brain and nerves and energy 
as is required to-day. There never was a time when there 
was such a demand for men of brains and parts and power 
and energy and efficiency; resourceful men, men who are 
never defeated; men of quality, ability and power; men of 
thought and of vision. The whole world is fiung wide open 

111 



112 THE RETIRED MINISTER 

to the man who has energy, thought and insight ; who neither 
sees ghosts nor fears the lions in the way, but goes straight- 
forward ; who when difficulties are in the way makes himself 
difficult to the difficulties. Vast fortunes are being made, and 
vast opportunities are offered in every line. No department 
of human thought or activity is shut to men of brains and 
power. To-day demands in our civil governments and national 
Congress men of prophetic j)ower — not mere politicians, men 
who can get elected merely, but men with prophetic vision, 
who study the ongoings of Divine Providence and the play 
of the social, political, national and international forces; wdio 
study humanity, and think and plan for humanity. Such is 
the growth of government and intelligence, and such are the 
demands on the human spirit, that nobody to-day can aspire 
to national fame or to be a statesman, who does not have 
keen perceptions of the mighty movements of humanity and 
who is unable to adjust human laws and forces to events which 
will as surely happen as that the stars will roll in their orbits. 
Not only in politics, national and international, and in 
great industrial enterprises and constructive schemes; in 
great affairs relating to the reclamation of lands, the tunnel- 
ing of mountains, the building of railroads, and the bridging 
of streams, but also in the Christian Ministry men of the 
largest ability are required. There never was a time when 
there was such a demand for men of the highest ability in 
the pulpit of the living God as this very day, for the simple 
reason that this day is like no other day. There never was 
a time when there were so many school-houses, colleges and 
great universities, or such great teachers in them; and there 
never was a time when the accumulated wisdom of all the 
ages was so concentrated in institutions of original research, 
scientific and sociological, concerning everything that per- 
tains to the human spirit and the growth and development of 
humanity. Your children and the children of the people to 
whom you preach are in the public schools, which, by reason 
of their development under the care of scientific men, are 
equal to the first class colleges of thirty years ago. These 
young people are getting ready for world ventures. Their 
minds have been opened, and throb with tremendous energy 
as they go out to the work that is before them. If they go to 
the Churcli of God, and, instead of finding a man of brains, 



NOT CHARITY BUT JUSTICE ll3 

who has a grip on things and himself, a man as equal to his 
place as a preacher as the teaclier, scientist and statesman are 
to theirs, they find a man who is not able to lead them any- 
where, one who had no outlook, no teaching nor informing 
power, no inspiring or uplifting vision, and not a single cell 
in heart, soul, mind and spirit vibrating by the vivid truth 
which he proclaims, where in a short time will these young 
people be, and where will the Church be ? 

The Church says to the young man coming out of her 
schools and colleges, and beginning the ministerial life, "You 
will have a small salary compared with what you can earn. 
You have ability to go into civil engineering, or medicine or 
jurisprudence, or into large industrial enterprises and prosper ; 
but as a Minister of Jesus Christ there will be but a pittance 
for you throughout your life. The time will come when your 
wife will walk timidly and humbly down the aisle and quickly 
draw her poor, faded skirts into the pew lest people should 
see how shabbily she is dressed, her womanly instinct revolt- 
ing at the difference she feels in her sensitive nature between 
her clothing and that of the women of the parish. Your 
little girl will be comparing her clothes with the nicely em- 
broidered dresses of the little girls at their side, and your 
little boy will look at his thick shoes and compare them with 
the soft kid of the little boy next door ; and you will live that 
sort of a life not because you are not the peer of their fathers 
in intelligence or capacity, but because you cannot compete 
financially with the men who are doing the larger material 
things in life. In college perhaps you hobnobbed with these 
fellows on the terms of intellectual and social equality, but 
you find yourself as a Minister stinted in income, and at the 
end of your active life what prospects have you for peace, 
comfort and satisfaction when the day^s work is done and you 
shall sit down in the twilight to look into the long unknown ?" 

In the presence of such questions how many men of brains, 
power and energy are going to sacrifice themselves to that 
kind of life? And then how will the Church of God be able 
to adjust itself to meet the religious problems of to-morrow, 
and to relate itself to the scientific revelations which lie ahead 
of us? And how can the Church relate itself to the philo- 
sopliic outcome of the human spirit produced by the cultural 
forces? How can tlie Chui'cli ])econio the great leader of 



114 THE EETIEED MIXISTEE 

humanity and set the tune for the world to sing by unless 
she has preachers who can pitch the key and command the 
respect and reverence of men who come out of great institu- 
tions into our churches? The result will be that your chil- 
dren will lose respect for the Church and its leadership and 
scholarship and spirit, and will turn aside to other agencies 
which minister to the sj^irit, in order to develop the cul- 
tural content of their inner life. 

It is a remarkable fact that in the conflict between the 
Church of Eome and the French Legislature, this strange 
thing happened, that notwithstanding the fact that the aris- 
tocracy of France supported the Church with the prestige of 
their names and gave their money, yet they failed to put their 
sons into the Ministry, which was recruited from the peasants 
of Brittany and southern France. What was the result? 
The time came when the Church was face to face with con- 
ditions which the thinkers of the nineteenth century had 
produced. Eenan had done his work throughout France, and 
the works of the English j)hilosophers and of the German 
Strauss had been translated into French, and had become the 
common propert}' of the intellectual men of France; and in 
the Senate there were the sharp, incisive, scientifically trained 
skeptic, the enemy of the Church, and the keen-witted, sar- 
castic politician, both pointing the finger of scorn and blurting 
with sarcastic tongues, while the Church stood like a fat ox, 
helpless under the fatal blows. The Church that quivered 
under the thunder of the Christless statesman of France had 
not a single soul of power and ability who in the hour of 
Eome's night was able to stand up and defend the Church 
of his fathers; and down she went under the scorn and con- 
tempt of the nation, separated forever from the life of the 
nation, because there was nobody to compete with those men 
on the "Left,^' nobody to answer their arguments, no one 
scientifically trained, no one with the world view, no one who 
had been bred in the modem atmosphere, no one able to cope 
with them in oratory or thought or influence. So in the long 
run, unless we get men of ability and culture and provide 
that such men shall give all the energies of their lives to the 
Church, the time will come when Protestant America will 
fmd itself in a tremendous emergency with no one able to 
defend it as it ought to be defended. 



NOT CHARITY BUT JUSTICE 115 

You say that if men be really touched by the Holy Ghost 
they will go into the Ministry of the Church; that no man 
will resist the call of the Spirit; that if the love of Christ is 
in his heart, the young man will enter the Ministry ready 
to sacrifice himself for the Church. I w^ant to say that there 
are millions of men who to-night would shed the last drop 
of blood for Jesus Christ and rejoice in doing it, who would 
not crook their little finger for a Church that violates the 
first principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ and forgets the 
old age or disabilities of its ministers. Not all good men con- 
sider that this, that or the other organization is necessary to 
Jesus Christ ; and you will find them going into Y. M. C. A. 
work, and into various kinds of associational Christian 
work, without throwing themselves into the work of the Min- 
istry. Men of brain and power and culture and ability and 
influence will not find their way in, if the Church of God 
starves them out, and gives them no chance to raise their 
families as the families next door are raised. They will not 
go into the Church if their boy will feel that it is a misfortune 
to him that his father was a Christian Minister, and will 
say, "I did not have the chance in the world that you had, 
nor your opportunity for education because my father was a 
Minister of Christ.^^ The result will be that you will get 
weaklings into the pulpit, and men who seek it for a living. 

The Church must have preachers who will stand on their 
own feet and succeed on their own merits; men who go out 
into the world to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ because the 
gospel is a power in their own lives, and the fire so consumes 
them that they must preach it; who feel, "Woe is me if I 
preach not the gospel V^ When a man has that in him and 
preaches the gospel with power, vigor, strength, and convic- 
tion, the Spirit of God will honor him; that is why He abides 
in His Church. We should put this question of a dependable 
pension for Eetired Ministers before the people everywhere 
because the cause of religion and the permanence of organ- 
ized Christianity are at stake ; and when our people grasp the 
thought that it is for the sake of religion itself that we plan 
great things for tlie Retired Ministers, then the Churcli will 
continue the royal race of prophets of God and spiritual 
leaders of Humanity, 

Portland, Ore, RiciiAKp J, Cooke. 



116 THE RETIEED MIXISTER 

WHY DOX'T YOU SPEAK FOR YOURSELF, JOHX? 

"Still John Alden went on, unheeding the words of Priscilla, 
Urging the suit of his friend, explaining, persuading, expanding. 
But as he warmed and glowed, in his simple and eloquent lan- 
guage. 
Quite forgetful of self, and full of the praise of his rival. 
Archly the maiden smiled, and, with eyes overrunning with 

laughter. 
Said, in a tremulous voice, 'Why don't yon speak for yourself, 
Johnr " 



YE FORGETFUL PREACHERS, pleading for schools 
and colleges, for Missions and hospitals — for black men and 
yellow men and red men and brown men — ministers whose 
sympathies go out to the ends of the earth — comj)osites of 
John Baptist, John Knox, John Calvin, and John Wesley — 
^YHY DON'T YOU SPEAK FOB YOURSELVES? 

The income required to meet the needs of the Retired 
Ministers is not large enough. But it will be large enough 
just as soon as the PASTORS SPEAK OUT WITHOUT 
APOLOGY, WITHOUT HESITATIOX, AVITHOUT 
FALSE MODESTY. 

Look at the reports of your Connectional Relief Boards. 
See how Veterans fared whose term of service was the same 
as yours. Put yourself on the list; or put your wife on the 
list. Then try to make the mental adjustments of your life 
and hers to the condition of retirement; and see how it will 
clear your throat and how your voice will ring out in behalf 
of your disabled brothers and sisters. 

You do not hesitate to plead for China and Africa and 
Korea ; for Belgium and France and Germany. Why fail 
to CRY ALOUD TO YOUR PEOPLE for your own brothers 
and sisters who received so little for their support last 3'ear ? 

The laymen are puzzled, however, because preachers hoarse 
from shouting for the heathen can scarcely speak above a 
whisper in behalf of the Retired Ministers. Pastors must 
come to self -consciousness and self-assertiveness in this their 
own cause. Do a little courting on your own account. 




STOP! LOOK! LISTEN! 



THE REV. JOSEPH B. HINGELEY, D.D. 

Corresponding Secretary Board of 
Conference Claimants 



STOP!— "THINK ON THESE THINGS" 

To eanicst-miiidcd Men and Women I Avoiild speak earnest, 
personal words concerning the needs of the Eetired Ministers, 
and the widows and dependent orphans of deceased Ministers, 
especially those of the Methodist Ej)iscopal Church. 

1. No otlier cliurcli demands so mucli, of its Ministers and 
tlieir families. They are not allowed to choose where they 
should go, or whom they should serve, or what financial 
support they shall receive. Surrendering themselves wholly 
to God and His work, they not only devote themselves entirely 
to His cause, but devote all they have or can secure. They 
not only preach the Gospel of Liberty, but the path to the 
parsonage door is worn by the feet of the sorrowing and the 
needy. They not only urge liberality to every good cause, 
but they are themselves examples of liberality. They are 
royal givers. 

2. On entering tlie Ministry they tooTc this Pledge: 
"To employ all their time in the Work of God." 

"To be merciful for Christ's sake to Poor and Needy 
people and to all Strangers destitute of help." 

"To give themselves wholly to their Office and to apply 
themselves to this one thing." 

"To search for the Sick, Poor and Impotent tliat they may 
be visited and relieved." 

In fulfilling these Christly duties enjoined by their Or- 
dination Vows they are not mere almoners of others' wealtli, 
])ut they draw on their own slender pui-ses. 

With the scanty support our Aged Ministers received tliey 
needed no exhortation against laying up treasures on earth, 
for earthly treasures were not theirs. 

117 



118 THE EETIEED MIKISTEE 

3. I need not remind you liow faithful tliey were to their 
trust. Your memory enshrines them. 

They were Friends of your Childhood. 

They led you to Christ. 

They sanctified your Marriage Vows. 

They fought life's hardest battles at your side. 

They walked with you amid the shadows. 

Their Prayers lifted up as on eagle wings your sainted 
Father and Mother, and brought smiles to the faces of your 
Triumphant Loved Ones. 

Their tears mingled with yours as they fell on the graves 
of Your Dead. 

4. Tliey were good business men, as ten thousand churches 
and hundreds of Colleges, Hospitals, and Homes for the 
poor and needy erected by them show. BUT THEIR BUSI- 
NESS WAS NOT TO MAKE MONEY. IT WAS TO 
SAVE AND MAKE ^lAN ; and in doing this task nothing 
was held in reserve — time, talent, means. 

While you were growing rich on the well-earned increment 
of your honest toil, and through the increment of an atmos- 
phere and conditions which they created, they were giving 
themselves to you and yours. They saw the country change 
from conditions of struggle and poverty to conditions of 
wealth and plenty. As the cost of living increased, their 
little stipend diminished or ceased altogether, until they 
now stand old, penniless, helpless; with courage to do, but 
without strength to perform their holy offices. 

Strange indeed would it be if you, who owe so much to 
them, should leave them to poverty and neglect. Stranger 
still, if you to whom these words come should fail to help 
them in their pressing needs, or hesitate to strengthen haiids 
which often strengthened you. 

LOOK! 

1. HOW MANY THEEE ARE 

In round numbers there are 

3,181 Retired Ministers, 
3,123 Widows of Deceased Ministers, 
285 Orphan Children. 

A total of 6,589 Conference Claimants in whom the 



STOP! LOOK! LISTEN! 119 

Methodist Episcopal Church declares "the claim to a com- 
fortable support rightly inheres." (Discipline If 323.) 

In addition to these there are also 500 Eetired Ministers 
who relinquished their claims in the interests of their less 
favored brethren. 

This would be a large number of a small Church, but it is 
not large for the Methodist Episcopal Church with twenty 
thousand ministers, three and one half million members, 
fifty million dollars annual expenditure, and three hundred 
millions of property. 

Nor is it strange that there should be 3,200 Eetired Min- 
isters out of a total 20,000 — one out of seven. A regiment 
of soldiers with only fifteen per cent incapacitated for duty 
is unknown in days of peace; and in time of war scarcely 
one out of two can be brought to the firing line. 

Cannot the Methodist Episcopal Church, which places fifty 
million dollars on God's altar each year, spare at least two 
millions — a nickel out of each dollar — for the Veterans who 
made it, and for the Widows and Children of the fallen? 

2. WHAT DO THEY EECEIVE? 

Only thirteen Conference Claimants receive more than 
$500 a year. 

Only one hundred and forty receive more than $400. 

Only five hundred receive more than $300. 

Of the remaining six thousand; 

Twelve hundred receive less than $50 each. 

Eifteen hundred receive less than $100. 

Thirty-six hundred receive less than $200. 

3. HOW DOES THIS LOOK TO YOU? 

If you are not familiar with the work that is now being 
done for the Aged Minister you will be woefully discouraged 
and ashamed. But when you learn what your brothers and 
sisters are doing to better the condition of the Eetired Min- 
isters, and the widows and orphans, you will thank God that 
their condition has improved greatly since the Board of 
Conference Claimants was organized in their bohalf, and 
they were given a voice to speak for them. 

tSince 1908 one hundred thousand dollars has been added 



120 THE EETIEED MINISTEE 

each year to the amount distributed to Conference Claim- 
ants. But not until half a million dollars more has been 
added to the present annual distribution can a self-respecting 
Church join in the Doxology. 

LISTEN! 

Many agencies are i)roviding help for the Eetired Min- 
istry: The Chaiitered Fund; Tlie Book Con-cern^; Annual 
CoxFERKXCE FuNDS ; and direct contributions from the 
churches which by law goes to them. 

But the authorized organization which correlates the entire 
work and conducts an inspirational and educational Cam- 
paign in behalf of the Veteran Preachers is "The Board 

OF CONFEREXCE CLAIMANTS OF THE MeTHODIST EPISCOPAL 

Church," now in its fifth year, which has given $175,000 to 
needy cases and is now creating a Connectional (that is 
general) Permanent Fund of $1,000,000; the income of 
which, together with other moneys secured by the Board, 
helps those Eetired Ministers, Widows and Orphans every- 
where whose needs are greatest. 

THE BOAED OF CONFEEENCE CLAIMANTS 

is the agent of the eniire Clnu'cli in helialf of all needy 
claimants, ivithout reference to Annual Conference hound- 
aries. Its money is first distributed to necessitous cases 
within the bounds of the w^eaker Conferences, and after- 
ward to those within the stronger Conferences. The Board 
is til us the great equalizer between the ^^oorer and the more 
prosperous fields. Its purpose as expressed in the Discipline 
is, that "A more equitahle and generous sup2:)ort may be 
secured for the Eetired Ministers and other Conference 
Claimants, especially for those in the more needy Confer- 
ences/' (If 471.) Conferences and churches cooperate in 
providing the Board with money for such distribution, and 
Methodist people everywhere are asked to become contrib- 
utors to the Connectional Permanent Fund of the Board. 

To the Board of Conference Claimants has been given 
not only the duty of building up and administering this Con- 
nectional Permanent Fund, but also that of "Increasing 
Kevenues for the benefit of Conference Claimants," 



STOP! LOOK! LISTEN! 121 

The Board is therefore a great inspirational organization. 
It publishes a quarterly magazine, The Veteran Preacher; 
it provides tracts for general distribution; it maintains a 
valuable literature covering important phases of the work. 
It issues Life Annuity Bonds, and urges the making of 
Wills in favor of the Eetired Preachers and Widows. 
Through its representatives it keeps in touch with Annual 
Conferences, and it cooperates in every possible way with 
all agencies employed by the Church to advance the cause 
of the Eetired Ministry. 

The Connectional (or general) Permanent Fund is for 
perpetual investments, the income only being used to help 
those Claimants who are in the greatest need. The General 
Conference authorized the ''Jubilee Gift for Conference 
Claimants/' thereby celebrating the Sesqui-Centennial, or 
150th Anniversary of American Methodism, expecting that 
at least a Million Dollars of it should go into the Connec- 
tional Permanent Fund of the Board. 

ANNUAL CONFEEENCE FUNDS 

THESE EAENEST WOEDS are addressed to you— a 
personal message from me, to whom in a special way the 
Cause of the Eetired Ministers, Widows and Orphans lias 
been committed. But I speak not only for the Board of 
Conference Claimants alone but also in belialf of all Organ- 
izations AND Annual Conferences which represent this 
Cause in its nearer relations. God has raised up threescore 
Conference agents and representatives who are serving the 
Church and the Veteran Ministry by securing mucli needed 
funds. I speak also for them. Their names will l)e found 
on page 289. They ask you to help the Eetired Ministers 
you know, and the widows and children of men who scr\ed 
in your own Conference. AVhatever organization you use in 
lielping the veterans I ask that you join in the lioly purpose of 
providing for the Aged Ministry; and I solicit from you — even 
as though 1 were speaking to you face to face — a Gift — a liberal 
gift — if possible, a GEEAT GIFT for this Cause; a gift which 
will represent, at least in part, your duty in so administer- 
ing your affairs that you may know, that the aged ^linister 
may know, tliat God may know that you have administered 
your estate in His Way. 



122 THE RETIRED MIXISTEE 

Shoald YOU desire to communicate with me or with your 
Conference representative, write fully and freely. Should 
you desire to see us, let us know and we will come to von. 
Messengers of Divine Opportunitv', glad to return as Mes- 
sengers of your bounty to his needy servants. 

Every day a new earth mound covers the wearied, worn 
body of an aged Methodist ^linister. Yesterday yon might 
have helped him. To-day you cannot. I do not appeal for 
him. His reward is ample. But I do appeal for his com- 
rade who survives, for the aged companion of his trials and 
triumphs, and for the dependent orphans, whose tears fill 
the eye of God. Their needs furnish your highest oppor- 
tunity for holy service. 

The best way for you, and the hest way for the Old 
PreadierSj who are with us to-day but who to-morrow will 
have gone to their reward, is to mal-e a Gift to them, to be 
forever invested in their behalf and in behalf of successive 
generations of Aged Ministers. 

Do not say, as Festus did of Paid, "Thou art beside thy- 
self ! Much learning of the needs of the Veterans doth make 
thee mad I" This Cause has been on my mind and heart for 
years. If you realize the need and will contribute to relieve 
"the necessities of the Saints" — the Aged Ministers and 
Widows — I am sure that you will agree that "I speak the 
words of tnith and soberness.'^ 

Chicago, 111. Joseph B. Hixgeley. 



VETERANS OF THE CROSS 
V. A. CooPEB. D.D. 

Church of the living God. arise! 
Your army peoples earth and skies; 
Veterans of the li-s-lng host, 
Borne down with age at duty's post. 
Worn out with toil not counted loss. 
Come bending low beneath the Cross. 

O Church of God, your Heroes greet 

Who lay their trophies at your feet! 
Let not the nation put to shame 
The gratitude they justly claim. 
Their wants relieve, your bounty give 
And make them happy while they live. 



PART I. THE CLAIM INHERENT 



6. 



CHAPTER II. OLD AGE 

PAGE 

Give Them the Flowers Now 124 

Some Advantages of Growing Old Thomas 125 



Seven Ages of a Minister Tipple . . 

The Senior Retired Minister Clemans. 

Does the Ministry Pay? Higgins . 

Growing Old. Barnes 138 

Will the Lights be White? Warman. 138 

The Old Man and the Child Tiplady . 

Serene Old Age Adams. . 

William's Superannuation Harris. . 

Why Do We Wait? . British Weekly . 146 



131 
134 
135 



139 
142 
143 



GIVE TIIEi\I THE FLOWEES NOW 



Closed eyes cannot see the white roses, 

Cold hands cannot hold them, you know; 
Breath that is stilled cannot gather 

The odors that sweet from them blow. 
Death, with a peace beyond dreaming. 

Its children of earth doth endow ; 
Life is the time we can help them, 

80 give them the floivers NOW. 

Here are the struggles and striving, 

Here are the cares and the fears; 
Now is the time to be smoothing 

The frowns and the furrows and tears. 
What to closed ears are kind sayings? 

What to hushed heart is deep vow? 
Naught can avail after parting, 

^0 give them the flowers NOW. 

Just a kind word or a greeting; 

Just a warm grasp or a smile — 
These are the flowers that will lighten 

The burdens of many a mile. 
After the journey is over, 

After tired hands drop the plow, 
What is the use of them, tell me? 

So give them the ftoicers XOW. 

Blooms from the happy heart's garden, 

Plucked in the spirit of love; 
Blooms that are earthly reflection 

Of flowers that blossom above — 
Words cannot tell vvhat a measure 

Of blessing such gifts will allow 
To dwell in the lives of the Veterans, 

So give them the floivers NOW. 




SOME ADVANTAGES 
OF GROWING OLD 

THE REV. W. H. THOMAS, D.D. 

New England Conference 



Just now it is the fashion to be young. The crowds on the 
streets appear to be yonng, and the profusely advertised 
lotions and treatments and devices to keep one looking young 
indicate that youth is the fashion. 

A little while ago it was the fashion for one to appear to 
be old. "Tonsorial artists" in the eighteenth century frosted 
every head with silver. They did not then with evil pride 
seek to conceal old age. The people did not so much pretend 
to be young as to look old. Only white heads of hair were in 
style and could be admitted to court. I mention this to disarm 
young people's prejudice in favor of youth by calling to mind 
that age can be fashionable, and so perhaps persuade them 
to consent to grow old; or at least to look kindly on the old, 
old fashion, ever new, of growing old; that fashion that ele- 
vates one to the only real and natural aristocracy in the 
world, the aristocracy of old age. 

One day Dr. Holmes said he was contemplating writing a 
book that would supplement his Autocrat of the Breakfast 
Table by treating of matters as over the supper table, show- 
ing how the same things looked when tlie day was done. His 
quaint, cheery, and unconquerable spirit is to be found in his 
last book, Over the Tea Cups. 

Max Mueller quotes with approval the Bishop of London's 
statements : 

"Men judge more wisely of what is essential and of what 
is indifferent in the quiet sunset of life than in the heat and 
burden of the day ; and Richter says : 

"Like a morning dream life boccmies more and more bright 
the longer we live, and the reason for everything appears to 
be clear. What lias puzzled us before seems less mysterious, 
and the crooked paths look straight as we approach the end." 

125 



126 THE EETIEED MIXISTER 

That would be a sorry arraignment of Providence which 
made life continue while taking away its advantages, leaving 
a man poorer for all he has toiled, studied and suffered; so 
that you may well expect other advantages to replace those 
taken away by age. If youth takes away precious things as 
it departs, growing old brings other precious things that can 
only come with the years. For the years are not robbers. 
Though they take from us they give us more than they take, 
and we are the richer for them. 

Age lias its own beauty. If the promise on the face of 
youth is beautiful, the achievement, the maturity on the face 
of age is likewise beautiful. We have seen sweeter smiles on 
the face of seventy than on the face of seventeen. There is 
a beauty one makes for one's self. All life's good or evil 
that enters the soul of man is at work chiseling and molding 
the face. Ah ! that wonderful sculptor within us, who is 
silently day by day molding our outward man to the likeness 
of the inward man. The beauty of matured character; the 
beauty of the holiness the years have molded ; the beauty that 
goodness brings, appear mostly when the evening rain of 
memory falls on the furrowed cheek. 

By growing old a man gets acquainted with himself — usu- 
ally the last one to get acquainted with and the most difficult 
acquaintance to secure. AYe are taught that memory is the 
proof of identity; that although every particle of body and 
brain that were me have gone, yet I am "I" still. But there 
is an element deeper than memory. Memory may be de- 
stroyed, yet personality goes on, all the influence of its for- 
gotten past molding it. As one grows older he finds that the 
^'V has survived all changes of body, mind or character, and 
of the years. This inner selfhood of the soul is like the clear 
daylight. It is given us to see with or by, but we cannot see 
it. The camera or the artist can make a picture with or by 
daylight, but to make a picture of daylight is impossible. 

Growing old permits us to see how much better the world 
is becoming. Law is being modified to be more just; govern- 
ments are less tyrannical and more humane ; comforts are 
multiplying and being more widely diffused; science is bring- 
ing to light what has long been hidden in darkness. There 
are those to whom life seems all askew and worse every day, 
vrho mournfully ask what the world is coming to. We reply 



SOME ADVANTAGES OF GROWING OLD 127 

that you have only to grow old and see what it is coming to, 
and be glad. 

lieligion may change its form of expression. The present 
ecclesiastical system was no more to be found in the first 
century than was the present civilization. When I go about 
among the churches and listen to a belated young preacher 
trying to run his mill with water that went by years ago, and 
to dreary repetitions of obsolete commonplaces that try the 
patience of the saints, I am not discouraged, for I have looked 
in our schools and seen the faces of the coming men. What a 
great thing it is to send out to every community a man who 
consents to a poorly paid calling, yet is refined, intelligent 
and quietly happy in self-denying work; "poor, yet making 
many rich^' in places where money is made the standard of 
respectability, influence, happiness and intelligence. Every 
parsonage with its limited financial circumstances is pro- 
claiming the right value of life to those whose minds the god 
of this world has blinded. The great German says : 

"Ye great or blessed spirits above us ! When a man here, 
under the poor clouds of life, throws away his fortune because 
he prizes it less than his heart, then is he as blessed and as 
great as you." Sadly Walt Whitman wrote, "I am tormented 
day and night by three demons, ill-health, poverty and old 
age," but the Veteran Ministry, that company of the noble 
army of martyrs, endures without complaint. We congrat- 
ulate the Church that the unrighteous, ungenerous treatment 
of them is passing away and that better conditions are coming. 

Growing old enables us to laugh when the mourners go 
about the street crying, "Christianity is a failure." "Chris- 
tianity a failure !" said Dr. Bartol. "It has never been tried." 
Men are not tired of Christianity. They have never found 
enough Christianity to get tired of it. We have been exasper- 
atingly complacent about it, counting our numbers, l)oasting 
our wealth, not knowing how poor and blind and naked we 
were. But Christianity has not been outlived; it has not 
been lived enough. The Christian ideal has not been tried 
and found wanting. It has been found difficult, and tried 
feebly; but we are just beginning to see that the teachings 
of Jesus are gathering force while other things are falling 
into contempt. 

The unrest of the Church is a sign of improvement. In all 



128 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

ages the prophets and priests have been at war. AYe know- 
that religion is not theology. It may be lived nnder many 
theologies. Eeligion is not ecclesiasticism. It lives under 
many forms of Church organization. Eeligion abides; the- 
ology and ecclesiasticism need periodical revision. 

"It is the strangest of paradoxes in history that religion 
loses itself without the Church, and its fineness is alwavs 
destroyed tvitJiin the Church." The prophet appears rousing 
and firing the hearts of the people for advance, but without 
the priest and the Church, he ends as a voice crying in the 
wilderness. The priest, as Jesus said, slays the prophet and 
by-and-by debases the Church. Yet the Church is the refuge 
of religion until the time comes, as it inevitably comes, when 
it bursts out as a pent-up fountain and will not be confined. 
Then the priest and the Church begin to make amends by 
rearing handsome sepulchers to slain prophets. The experi- 
ences of the years lead us surely to expect that in the end true 
religion will be the gainer. 

Tlie relations of science and religion have changed with 
the years for the better. There is no feud between science 
and religion any more than there is between science and life. 
They travel on parallel roads. Science has to do with nature's 
processes. Eeligion has to do with the consummation of the 
processes of nature and life, character, perfection. 

Growing old brings the surer faiili, because established on 
the facts of our own experience. By seeming necessity, every 
once in a while men put their theories and beliefs into the 
melting pot to reassay them and put new values on them. 
It would be unaccountabl}'- sad indeed if God had so fixed it 
that the world must depend for its religious faith on the 
disputed opinions of the few. He did not do so. Jesus said, 
"If any man will do His will he shall know the doctrine"; 
and the experience of doing His will brings a basis for a 
satisfactory faith. 

Long years ago a very old man went up on a mountain to 
die. He had put into the melting pot Egyj^tian Ijeliefs and 
the beliefs of the Hebrew patriarchs; his own hands were 
blood-stained; his life strenuous. He had refused a throne 
from princijDle, and had led a people out of bondage. He had 
talked with God until his face shone. He had given God's 
law to men, that remains to this day. Yet he had ])een dis- 



SOME ADVANTAGES OF GROWING OLD 129 

eouraged with the waywardness and sins of the people. His 
fondest hopes, his life's labors were unfulfilled. He was to 
die, as so many do, in sight of the promised land. Yet when 
he went to his death with everything dear to him vanishing 
from his sight, his death song was, 

"Underneath are the everlasting arms." 

His life's problems had been transmuted into experience. 
The evening mists of old age and death gathered thicker and 
thicker around him, but in the darkening of life his heart 
felt itself embraced more closely by the everlasting arms. 

Pie who spake as never man spake said, "Love your ene- 
mies; bless them that curse you; do good to them that hate 
you; pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute 
you." He tells us to do what is against our nature and prac- 
tice. Laws and governments are against it. It is easy to 
prove that society could not go on bound by His teaching, and 
yet in our innermost nature we recognize that He is right, 
and that the highest soul must live by His teaching. 

He said, "He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and the 
good." We are confused and say, "Light is for the good and 
darkness for the evil; rain for the just, but the parching 
desert for the unjust." But when He adds, "Ye shall be 
l^erfect as your heavenly Father is perfect," we feel that He 
opens the door to a life higher and wider and nobler, and our 
spirits respond thereto. 

Paul called Jesus the "Yes" of the promises of God. 
Christ's teaching is the affirmation of the aspirations in the 
heart of man. Divine suggestions come to human conscious- 
]iess, and we realize that we are allied to a being who guaran- 
tees the ultimate goodness of existence. 

Growing old brings us where we affirm God with every 
breath; and every act of disinterested goodness proves our 
sense of oneness with that Spirit whose claims are absolutely 
imperative; while underneath us are the everlasting arms. 
That sea captain a thousand miles from land, suffering with 
ptomaine poisoning, sent a wireless call for a physician and 
a prescription, and through hundreds of miles of darkness 
the answer came fitting his needs. His agony abated, his life 
was saved. So we in our sore needs send out our cries into the 
darkness for help, and the answer comes telling us what we 
must do to be saved. It brings relief from sin, comfort in 



130 THE RETIRED MIXISTER 

sorrow and communion with an intelligence and helpfulness 
that is out of sight. As we grow old we know by long ex- 
perience that there is a divine help that responds to our cry 
of need. This experience becomes as much a reality as life 
itself or feeling or thought, and brings a defensible faith, 
"For faith is the giving substance to things hoped for; a test 
of things not seen"; so that with Jesus we may say, "We 
speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen." These 
experiences cost us our flays, our energies and our illusions, 
but they l)rought us to the place where — 

•'The steps of faith 
Fall on the seeming void 
And find the rock beneath." 

They bring us where we can say, "0 how melodious sound 
around me the evening bells of life." 

The florist opens a box brought from the far tropics, and 
brings to vi'ew a gnarled, earthly bulb. He puts it into 
favorable conditions, its face turned toward the light, and 
by and by there hangs the exquisite exotic orchid. How 
wonderful that so much rare beauty should spring from so 
much uncouthness; that the continual experience of the light 
and warmth of passing days should bring from the root that 
had no beauty such a transcendent flower of supernal beauty. 
Something like that has happened to us with the growing 
years. We have been persuaded to come out of the dark prison 
of sordidness, to cast oft' tlie cerements of sin and to lift up 
our souls into the light of God. Something has been unfold- 
ing in us after a hidden pattern. We would not dare say it, 
but the apostle does : 

"We all with unveiled faces ])eholding as in a mirror the 
glory of the Lord are transformed into the same image, from 
glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit." 

If that is the interpretation of our life's experiences with 
God, then hopefully, cheerfully may we still go forward with 
the 5Tars. By growing old we graduate from the sad, pa- 
thetic, longing cry of the King James Version, "^J.}" heart 
and my flesh cry out for the living God," into the experience 
represented by the Revised Version, 

"J/?/ lieart and mij fe^li sing for joy for the living God." 

South Xorwalk, Conn. W. H. Thomas. 



II 





SEVEN AGES 
OF A MINISTER 

EZRA SQUIER TIPPLE, D.D. 

President Drew Theological Seminary 



I. The Divine Summons 

The awakening voice: "I heard the voice of the Lord, say- 
ing, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Inward 
struggles: Men preach not because they want to preach, but 
because they must. "Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel." 
Dawning convictions: "Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, 
and to hearken than the fat of rams." Worldly ambitions 
laid upon the altar. The sacrifice complete. 

My life, my blood, I here present, 
If for thy truth they may be spent; 
Fulfill thy sovereign counsel, Lord; 
Thy will be done, thy name adored. 

II. Sharpening the Sword 

Days of preparation: A long journey over a rough way. 
Hard ivork, much of it: Sacrifices for the sake of an adequate 
equipment daily. Patient effort, long continued: The preacher 
must get some word from God before he speaks it. 

"Clearly he has a task which will need an undivided atten- 
tion and a complete absorption in its fulfillment. He is to climb 
Sinai with its ring-fence of death, and on the summit speak 
face to face wilh Him whom no one can see and yet live. He 
is to push through the wilderness, eating angels' meat or 
nothing, and scale the crags of Horeb, where in a great hollow, 
shadowed by a hand, he may, through earthquake, wind, and 
fire, discern the still small voice. What a venture it is for 
him! No sphere of human activity is to be compared with the 
exigencies of this endeavor." — Horton. 

Days of waiting, as in the upper room in Jerusalem ; desert 
days, as to John ; days of ivant and penury even, but days of 
heroic ideals and high hopes. 

131 



132 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

III. Ox THE Skirmish Lixe 

When, at one of the early Conferences of the Church, 
Bishop Asbury called for a volunteer to go to some desert 
region in the far South, "the region of many diseases and 
broken constitutions/' as he said, Enoch George sprang to his 
feet and cried, "Here am I; send me." This has ever been 
the spirit of the Methodist preacher. An apostle "by the 
will of God," he has gone to Hardscrabble Circuit, or other 
difficult field, with courage and gladness of heart. Salary 
small, $J:00 or $500 perhaps, but he is not of those prophets 
who, according to Amaziah's scornful judgment, preach in 
order to earn their bread. Anyhow, many churches seem to 
believe that ministers ous^ht not to expect to live by bread 
alone, and furnish a more ethereal diet. So there is a con- 
tinuation of the story of hardships and sacrifices. 

IV. Ix THE Heat of the Coxflict 

Sun at meridian; hattle at higJi tide; the exhilaration of 
victory felt ; all the powers of mind and heart at full play. 

'Tis not a cause of small import 

The pastor's care demands; 
But what might fill an angel's heart, 

And filled a Saviour's hands. 

Yet all the ivlnJe continued sacrifices. Rigid self-denial the 
rule of the household ; children to be educated ; an example of 
benevolence to be shown; appearances to be kept up; a thou- 
sand demands on the preacher's income. AVhat of the rainy 
day? Or old age? But why have anxious thought of tlie 
morrow ? Has not this preacher the divine promises and the 
pledge of a great Church ? 

V. The Tuex of the Tide 

Scarcely perceptible at first, hut the tide is going out now. 
He is stronger and better equipped than at any time in his 
life, but fewer churches seem to desire him. the shame 
of it ! There is a touch of gray in his hair, and church com- 
mittees turn from him as "too old." He knows how false it 
is; his soul protests against the injustice of it all; but, but 
— why kick against the pricks? Tlte tide is at the ehh now. 



SEVEN AGES OE A MINISTER 133 

YI. The Lengthen'ixg Shadows 

The years multiply. Eorty of them perhaps have now been 
given to the Chnrch. They have indeed been years of hard- 
ship and sacrifice, but glad, happy years of blessed service. 
Salaries have never been large, but there has been no com- 
plaint. He did not enter the ministry to make money — that 
question was settled in those far-off days when he heard the 
voice of the Lord. He lias preached, not for money, but that 
lie might have the seal of God^s favor and the approval of 
liis own conscience. Souls have been his hire. Neither God 
nor the Methodist Church has yet failed him. Why should 
he doubt or fear now, when he walks with faltering step, wlien 
work is becoming too heavy a burden for him to carry mucli 
longer ? 



'to' 



VIT. SUPEPtA^NUATIOX 

The preach e?''s Geihsemane, too often, alas! The fateful 
liour, towards which he has sometimes looked with mysterious 
dread, has come. He is no longer in "active^' service. An- 
otlier lias taken liis place on tlie firing line. He watches the 
conflict from a distance. the anguish of this, when his 
heart still beats with courage and the song of battle is still 
on his lips ! Few realize the agony and bitterness of tliis 
experience. But, anyhow, he is comfortable, you say. Is lie? 
IS he comfortable? 

What was it Cardinal Wolsey said, in his fall from power? 
"Had I l)ut served my God with half the zeal I served my 
king, he would not in mine age have left me naked to mine 
enemies." This man, this Methodist preacher, has been serv- 
ing God these many years. He has given to the Church all 
his affection, energy, thought and devotion. God has been 
liis master; the Church has been the field of his unremitting 
toil. Now that lie has come to old age, will the Lord cast 
him off? Never. God's promises are sure. They have not 
been revoked. What is this tliat He pledges? "I will in 
nowise fail thee, neither will I in any wise forsake thee." 

E'en down to old age all my people shall prove 
My sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love; 
And when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn, 
Like lambs they shall still in my bosom be borne. 



134 



THE EETIEED MINISTER 



God must make good His word to the old preacher, but 
how? God Avorks through his people. The Church must 
make good the pledges of ihe Almighty. The Lord has laid 
upon the Church this solemn duty. The Church is the bank 
where God's promises to the old preacher must be cashed. 
Archangels will not be sent from heaven with currency as long 
as the Church has an abundance. God is pledged to the 
support of His sons ivho trust in Him, and tve are His chosen 
agents to do His ivill toward tliem. We must not fail Him, 
lest those whom He loves and whom we love and honor, and 
to whose fidelity and labors the Church and, it may be, our 
own soul owes so much, when in their old age they ask for 
bread are given a stone, or for fish are given a serpent. The 
Church must, in the name of Christ, care for the preacher 
who in the journey of life has come to the last inn on the road 
and "superannuated," waits the royal summons. 

Madison, N. J. _______ y^zux S. Tipple. 

THE SEXIOR RETIRED METHODIST MINISTER 




The Rev. David Jordan Higgins, D.D. — 97 Years Old 

Dr. Higgins was born at Gorham, Me., on September 18th, 
1817. He pursued his studies at Wesleyan University for 
three years and entered the Maine Conference in 1842. 



DOES THE MimSTRY PAY? 135 

At the outbreak of the Civil War, he raised a company and 
was made its Captain, and quickly won his way to promotion, 
being commissioned Colonel of the Twenty-fourth Ohio Vol- 
unteer Infantry. Physically disabled by the hardships of the 
service, he resigned his commission and soon after reentered 
the Methodist ministry in Minnesota. He took a Retired 
relation in the Northern Minnesota Conference in 1899. 

Dr. Higgins has been a student all his life. Two years ago 
he completed a four years' course in advanced philosophy in 
the University of California, and is now taking a course of 
study for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. He has written 
recently American Life in the XIX Ceiitm^y, and Tlie Prob- 
lem of Christianity. 

Concerning his books, he wrote : 

"I make these studies for my physical benefit, for I find 
that' my physical energy depends largely upon my mental 
activity." 

Dr. Higgins is also a Bible student and has made it his 
daily practice for years to read a chapter of the Bible in the 
Greek or Hebrew text. He is a standing rebuke to any young 
minister who thinks that he has completed his studies when 
he has finished his Conference Course. Though almost a 
centenarian, his mental activities are keen. At the request 
of Dr. Hingeley he prepared the following article : 

DOES THE MINISTRY PAY? 

Tiip] Rev. David Jordan Higgins, D.D. 

Seventy years in the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church furnislies a whole volume of reminiscences; especially 
because no organization aftords such variety of life experiences 
as does the Methodist Itinerancy. In the early days the ])as- 
torate of one-year limit kept the preacher busy niglit and day. 
AA'hat he did must be done rapidly, for the "Itinerant Wheel'' 
revolved as regularly and inexorably as the earth, and he must 
move on, his work completed or not. His one work was 
evangelizing sinners, with but small opportunity to make him- 
self felt as a factor in social or civic life. His salary of $100, 
if paid in full, provided his clothing and supplied him with 
the few books necessary for the "Conference Course of 



136 THE EETIKED MINISTER 

Study.'' But his food and that of liis horse was abundant 
and of the best quality; for the mothers and sisters of the 
Church displayed the best sjjecimens of their culinary art 
when the preacher came around, for his special good or harm ; 
often for his harm, for many a favorite preacher owed his 
untimely death to the rich food urged upon him by the good 
sisters. What a picture, that home, where the preacher was 
entertained: The best room; the nice warm bed; the cozy 
open fire ; the brooding mother, and the smiling daughters. 

The scene changes and the pastorate lengthens to two years, 
and the salary is raised to $200. A parsonage is supplied, 
and the jDreacher's bride fills it with sunshine. AVhat a joy 
animates the heart and life of the preacher, when the choicest 
maiden of the whole country comes to the parsonage ! No 
matter now, how long the rides between appointments, or how 
cold the storm that beats in his face, there is a home awaiting 
him with the Avelcoming kiss and loving greetings. 

The children come, blessed children ! Their clattering feet, 
and ringing voices seem like angel wings, and the sweet 
melody of heaven. The cunning fingers of the wife and 
mother cut and stretch the scanty cloth for the children's 
garments, and mend the socks of the husband; and, best of 
all, she sits at his side and helps to untangle the knotty 
dogmas of Paley, Butler or ^^^atson, or suggests a needed 
thought for next Sunday's sermon. 

The years pass; and the comfortable, neat church, with its 
steeple, takes the place of the rough school house. The pipe 
organ is substituted for the bass-viol and flute. The Confer- 
ence Seminary rises, and the children finish their education 
or prepare for college. The grand old Church of the 
preacher's love and care grows in strength and wealth. The 
pastorate lengthens, the time limit dies out, and the preacher 
stays at his work as long as all parties agree ; long enough to 
become a felt factor in social and civic life. He is no longer 
a ^'Traveling Preacher." He has become a ^'Settled Pastor." 
The Church becomes institutional, rather than evangelistic, 
as when he began his ministry. The work of the preacher 
becomes educational rather than revivalistic, and his worth 
is gauged by his ability to build imposing church edifices, 
and to raise money for the conservation of the institutions of 
the Church. The wealthy churches elect their pastors by 



DOES THE MINISTRY PAY? 137 

committee with the approval of the appointing power. Edu- 
cation, with its wider range of study, is the spirit of the times. 

Meanwhile the average preacher receives his appointment 
as in the older time, and lives on the '^ragged edge" of appre- 
hension as to what he will do when he is old and must retire 
from active work ; for after educating his children and living 
decently among his parishioners, he has no margin to save 
for the future. 

At last the time comes for him to retire. His gray hairs 
tell of passing years, and the young people want young minis- 
ters, who can more readily sympathize with their tastes, and 
are "up-to-date." So he retires from the work which he has 
loved, and in which he has found his highest joy, into the 
seclusion of suj)erannuation. 

The children have gone out and made homes for themselves. 
With his gracious wife, who has borne with him the burdens 
of itinerant life, and feasted on the riches of sweet com- 
munion with the parishioners, he finds a home for himself, 
relying on the pension, that the Church is bestowing, and 
which is increasing annually. They retire into the bosom of 
some local Church and thank God that they have been hon- 
ored with the privilege of serving the Church and humanity, 
within the limits of their ability, and of associating with the 
highest and noblest class of people human life has produced. 

Does the itinerant ministry pay ? Are there compensations 
for whatever extra labor and privation the calling involves? 
For answer : Think of the rich inheritance of benefits which 
have accrued from the passing years, and have accumulated 
into a fund of experiences. The elevating influence of pas- 
toral intercourse with the cleanest class of human beings. 
The invigorating exchange of high thought with fellow min- 
isters. The necessity of large and close study of the de^'elop- 
ing knowledge of the age. The call for constant intimacy 
and communion with the Divine for inspiration to understand 
the message he is to deliver to the people. All these, and 
unspeakably more of inflowing results, have poured in to 
make his character. No prea(;her of sober mind, reviewing 
his ministerial experiences, can fail to rejoice that he was 
called to be an '^Itinerant Preacher." 

David J. Higgins, 

Pasadena, Cal, 



138 THE EETlHEl) MINISTER 

GROWING OLD 

Dr. a. V. Barnes, in The Christian Advocate 

A little more tired at the close of day, 
A little less anxious to have our way; 
A little less anxious to scold and blame, 
A little more care for a brother's name; 
And so we are nearing the journey's end. 
Where time and eternity meet and blend. 

A little less care for bonds of gold, 
A little more zest for the days of old, 
A broader view and a saner mind, 
And a little more love for all mankind; 
And so we are faring down the way 
That leads to the gates of a better day. 

A little more love for the friends of youth, 
A little more zeal for established truth; 
A little more charity in our views, 
A little less thirst for the daily news; 
And so we are folding our tents away 
And passing in silence at close of day. 

A little more leisure to sit and dream, 
A little more real the things unseen; 
A little nearer to those ahead. 
With visions of those long loved and dead; 
And so we are going where all must go. 
To the place the living may never know. 

A little more laughter, a few more tears, 
And we shall have told our increasing years. 
The book is closed, and the prayers are said, 
And we are part of the countless dead. 
Thrice happy, then, if some soul can say, 
"I live because he passed my way." 



WILL THE LIGHTS BE WHITE? 
Cy Warman 

Oft when I feel my engine swerve, 

As o'er strange rails we fare, 
I strain my eyes around the curve 

For what awaits us there. 

Swift towards life's Terminal I trend. 
The run seems short to-night. 

God only knows what's at the end; 
I hope the lamps are white. 




THE OLD MAN AND 
THE CHILD 

THE REV. THOMAS TIPLADY 

London, England 



The modern Cliurcli has ignored those in life's second child- 
hood. The commercial world regards a man as "too old at 
forty/' and "fires out" its gray-haired ones, and nnfortnnately, 
the Church has accepted the world's estimate. There are 
monthly sermons to young men and women, but I have never 
seen any advertisement of monthly sermons to old men and 
women. The idea would be laughed at. I don't know why. 
Probably old men need comforting, as often as young men 
need inspiring; but the young men are placed in the center 
of the Church and the old men are left out in the cold — and 
old people are susceptible to cold. The old man looks back 
wistfully to the days when white hairs were regarded as a halo 
of glory, and often, when the preacher has forgotten him, 
there has been "a door opened in heaven" and he has seen 
there One Whose "hair was white as white wool, wiiite as 



snow." 



Forces 



Old men cannot hustle and make things hum; therefore it 
is concluded that their work is done. But Mr. Worldly Wise- 
man and Mr. American Hustle have yet to learn that it is not 
so much what we do that counts, as what we are. The might- 
iest forces in grace, as in nature, are often quiet and still. 

A Child's Vision 

The Church, by accepting the commercial world's estimates 
of Imman life, has cut itself off from its chief reservoirs of 
spiritual power. The most spiritual people in the world are 
the cliiklren and the aged, and the most worldly are the 
middle-aged. A child's life is full of the spiritual and 
romantic. The world to him is full of fairies, angels, devils 

139 



140 



THE EETIEED MINISTER 



and, above all, God. Heaven is as real to him as England, 
and more real than France. He believes in immortality, but 
not in death. He believes in pra3^er. It is as natural as talk. 
He walks with sure step in the spiritual world, and talks 
intimately and naturally about it. He has not merely ideas 
but knowledge, not merely belief but vision. He renews the 
faith of his parents, as quietly and surely as spring renews 
the face of nature. 

Extremes Meet 

It is the same with the aged. They are in life's second 
childhood. The extremes of age meet, and human life be- 
comes a perfect circle. The old man has sailed round the 
world of human experience, and finds himself back in the 
harbor from which he sailed as a boy. He set out to prove 
what he already knew by intuition. Columbus had discov- 
ered America before he sailed from Europe. He sailed the 
Atlantic to prove the truth of that which had already been 
revealed to his mind. The child knows, but has not proved 
his knowledge. The old man has proved what the child 
knows by intuition. The middle-aged is in mid-Atlantic 
beset with doubts and fears. He has not the unwavering 
faith with which he started, nor the absolute assurance with 
wliich he will end. 

Youth and Age Lovers 

Only the child and the old man are sure. They see the 
same things and subscribe to the same creed. Children and 
old folk love the same objects and treasure the same ideals. 
That is why children and old people become chums, and never 
quarrel. They understand one another. The middle-aged 
understand neither of them. It is always the grandparents 
who spoil the children, and the children who spoil the grand- 
parents. Leave the young and the old together, and they 
are as happy as the day is long. 

Aged Simeon and the Baee 

It was, of course, two old people who first discovered the 
Babe Jesus in the temple. Old Simeon and Anna were the 
first to bless the Child and to praise God for Him. The 
picture of old Simeon with the Babe Jesus in his arms shows 



THE OLD MAN AND THE CHILD 141 

the eternal relationship of childhood to old age. An old 
man always feels like singing the Nunc Dimittis when he 
has a child in his arms. He feels that, at last, he is under- 
stood; that he is no longer among strangers, but at home; 
at last all is harmony. The child and the old man are alike — 
gay, careless, romantic and devout. There is merriment wdien 
they meet. Life is always dull when you have sent the chil- 
dren to the boarding-school and the old folk to the workhouse. 

Mid-Life Least Spiritual 

It is in mid-life that we are least spiritual and keep closest 
to the earth. We walk the midmost years with leaden feet. 
The middle-aged has to bear the burden and heat of the day. 
He has to provide for the little children and the old folk, as 
well as for himself. He has to enter into the thick of the 
fight, and his eyes are blinded by the battle-smoke and his 
ears deafened by the sound of blows. He turns from poetry 
to prose, and from romance to what he calls reality. He gets 
so near to life that he becomes short-sighted. He lacks 
vision. He cannot see the woods for the trees. He begins 
to despise his early ideals : and to call himself a "practical 
man." In the Church his bent is toward business and or- 
ganization, and he makes a splendid Church officer; but he 
is inclined to leave the more spiritual work to the young 
folk and the old folk. To him the Church is a machine, and 
he wants to "run" it on up-to-date business lines; but to the 
old man and the youth the Church is a living thing — a plant, 
or vine, that needs loving and tending. 

Lack of Vision" 

Now, it is evident that if the Church's life is to be full and 
complete we must have youth, mid-life and old age evenly 
balanced. If youth predominates there will be too much of 
the ideal and too little of the practical; if the middle-aged 
predominate there will be too much organization and too 
little of the ideal and spiritual; and if the old folks predom- 
inate there will be spirituality, but the organization will fall 
to pieces. In the Church of to-day the middle-aged i)re- 
dominate, and there is a consequent lack of vision. The 
machine is perfect, but we do not know wlijit to do with it. 
Our gun is perfect, but we do not know how to point it. 



142 THE KETIKED MINISTER 

Having no vision, we cannot see where the enemy is. The 
middle-aged are the hands of the Church, but the young and 
the aged are the eyes and ears. 

Listen and be Eeverent 

We need not only hands to fire the gun, hut eyes to direct 
it. We need the aged Moses on the hill-top praying, if the 
younger Joshua is to fight successfully in the valley. It is 
the young men who see visions and the old men who dream 
dreams; and it is the middle-aged that work them out. 
Joseph dreamt in his youth, and worked out his dreams in 
mid-life. The need of to-day is vision, and it will come 
when we lead back the children into the pews and the old 
people into the counsels of the Church. The child and the 
old man each live on the border-land of the eternal world. 
The child comes to us with trailing clouds of glory from 
heaven which is his home, and the old man stands at the 
bounds of the west gazing on the City of God. Ths child 
is bathed in the beauty of the dawn, and the old man is lit 
up with the glory of the sunset. Let us be reverent before 
them, and honor whom God honors. Let us listen to the 
voices which come to us from the extreme bounds of life. 
Let us listen, for the child's voice is weak and the old man's 
tremulous, and we may miss that which belongs to our peace. 

Thomas Tiplady. 

London, England. 



SERENE OLD AGE 
The Rev. J. W. Adams, D.D. 

Serene I watch Life's setting sun: 
The twilight scarcely seems begun. 
I still can see afield to go; 
And still I joy to reap and sow; 
And so, at threescore years and ten, 
I'm happy as I've ever been. 

I'm learning where are pastures green. 

And waters still that lie between. 

With shepherd's crook and shepherd's pride, 

My trusting little flock I guide. 

Of all the years which I recall, 

The seventieth has been best of all. 



WILLIAM'S SUPERANNUATION 

FROM "THE CIRCUIT RIDER'S WIFE" 

BY CORRA HARRIS 

Permission of The Altemus Co., Philadelphia 



William was failing fast and he came down with sciatica 
that spring. He had been in bed a month. The people on the 
circuit began to show that they were disappointed in not 
having an active man who could fill his appointments. . . . 
I was sitting in the kitchen door one morning wondering 
what God was going to do about it; for I knew that we 
could not expect help from any other source. The agnostics 
may say what they please, but if you get cornered between 
old age and starvation you will find out that there is a real, 
sure-enough God who numbers the remaining hairs of your 
head and counts the sparrow's fall. William and I tried 
Him and we know. There were terrible times toward the 
last, when we never could have made it if it had not been 
for just God. 

William never recovered from that attack of sciatica. His 
legs got well, but he did not. He was different afterward, 
as if he had fallen into a trance. He filled his appointments 
after a fashion during the remainder of the year, but became 
increasingly forgetful. The people did not like it aiid the 
presiding elder called for his superannuation at the Con- 
ference on the ground of "failing powers.'' 

William was too dazed by the misfortune of his superan- 
nuation to think or plan for the future. For him there was 
no future. He sat in the chimney corner, following me about 
the house with his vacant eyes, but really grieving for one 
of the choice, hard circuits, with its dried fruit salary, such 
as he had received for years; or remembering the good 
pastoral times he had in this or that year. 

I have sometimes wondered vvliat would be tlie moral 
effect upon a church community if an old and lielpless 
preacbei" like William sliould be sent to it witli tlie uiuler- 

143 



144 



THE RETIRED MINISTER 



standing that the church should minister to him instead of 
him ministering to the church; that every saint and sinner 
should he invited to contribute to his peace and comfort, even 
as for years he had labored for them. There would be less 
preaching, of course, but more development in real Chris- 
tian service. 

Within a month the horse and buggy were sold, the cottage 
at Redwine rented, and we settled in it like two crippled 
birds in a lialf-featliered nest. Now, for the first time since 
I left Edenton, a happy, thoughtless bride, I had leisure to 
think just of ourselves. And I found that we were two 
Imman numerals added together for a lifetime which made 
a deficit. Yet we had not been idle or indifferent workers. 
For thirty years William had l)een in the itineracy, filling 
nearly every third and fourth class appointment in the Con- 
ference. He had preached three thousand sermons, baptized 
more than four hundred infants, received nearly four thou- 
sand souls into membership. He liad l)een untiring in his 
efforts to raise Jiis assessments, and had paid more pastoral 
calls than half a dozen doctors do to become famous and 
wealthy. 

Time changed us; we grew old. I abandoned my waist 
line to Nature's will and my face settled into the ex^Dression 
of a good negative that has been blurred by too long exposure 
to strong light. Toward the end William looked like the 
skin-and-bones remnant of a saint. His face was sunken 
and hollowed out till the very Wesley in him showed through. 
His beard was long, and had whitened, until it gave his Moses 
head the appearance of coming up out of a holy mist. To 
make things worse William took on a weary look after his 
superannuation like that of a man who has made a long 
journey in vain. This is always the last definition the itiner- 
acy writes upon the faces of its superannuates. They are 
unhappy, mortified, like honorable men who have failed in 
business. They no longer pretend to have better health than 
they really have, which is the pathetic hypocrisy they all 
practice to the last when they are in annual fear of superan- 
nuation. So I looked at our deficit and knew that some- 
thing was wrong. 

I have never doubted the goodness of God, but things being 
as they are, and ^^'e being what we are, it takes a long time for 



WILLIAM^S SUPEEANNUATION 145 

Him to work it out for us, especially in any kind of a 
Church. Meanwhile I tried to find some of our old friends, 
only to discover that most of them were dead. I planted a 
few annuals, set some hens, and prepared to cultivate my 
own peace. 

But William was changed. He had lost his courage. 
Whenever the rheumatism struck him he gave in with a 
groan. Then he took up with Job and before we had been 
back long enough for the flowers to bloom, he just turned 
over on his spiritual ash-heap and died. He was buried in 
the little graveyard behind Redwine Church, along with 
the men and women to whom he preached thirty years ago. 

I can feel that I am not setting things down right, not 
making the latitude and longitude of experience clearly so 
you can see, as I can when I close my eyes, the staggering 
tombstones in the brown shadows behind the little brown 
church. 

I used to wonder why Paul, passing through all the grand- 
est cities and civilizations of his times, never left behind him 
a single description of any of their glories. But I know now. 
Paul lost the memory of sight. He had absent-minded eyes 
to the things of the world. So it is with the itinerant. The 
earth becomes one of the stars. I cannot remember roads 
and realities. I recall most clearly only spiritual facts, like 
this: Timothy Brown was a bad man, soundly converted 
under William^s ministry; but how he looked, on what cir- 
cuit he lived, I have forgotten long ago. 

The very scene of his passing floats a mist in memory. I 
know he lay in the same house where he had brought me on 
our wedding day. Through the window in the pearl light 
of the early morning there was the same freshness upon the 
hills, the same streams glistening like silver maces between 
them; there was the same little valley below, fluted in like a 
cup filled with corn and honey and bees and flowers. The 
same gray farmliouses brooded close to the earth, with chil- 
dren playing in the dooryards. It was all there the morn- 
ing he died, as it had been that blue and glad morning thirty 
years before; but I could not see it or feel it with him lying- 
stretched and still upon the bed. It is dim and blurred, and 
I cannot think it or write it properly. There seemed a rime 
upon tlio window-panes; tlie hills were bai'e, and the cup of 



146 



THE RETIRED MINISTER 



the valley lay drained and empty before me, with the shadow 
of death darkening all the light of the day. I remained in 
the little house between the hills, walking about, attending 
to my few wants, receiving an occasional visitor in a sort 
of trance of sorrow. William had meant more to me than 
heaven. I had endured poverty, prayers, persecutions and 
revivals for his sake. And now I had lost him. I missed 
liim when I looked down the bridle path into the valley, and 
I missed him when I looked at the stars. Nothing meant 
an3'thing to me witliout him. 



WHY DO WE WAIT? 

Why do we wait till ears are deaf 

Before we speak our kindly word, 
And only utter loving praise 

When not a whisper can be heard? 

Why do we wait till hands are laid 
Close-folded, pulseless, ere we place 

Within them roses, sweet and rare, 
And lilies in their flawless grace? 

Why do we wait till eyes are sealed 

To light and love in death's deep trance — 

Dear wistful eyes — before we bend 
Above them with impassioned glance? 

Why do we wait till hearts are still 
To tell them all the love that's ours. 

And give them such late meed of praise. 
And lay above them fragrant flowers? 

How oft do we, careless, wait till life's 

Sweet opportunities are past. 
And break our "alabaster box 

Of ointment" at the very last! 

0, let us heed the living friend 

Who walks with us life's common ways. 

Watching our eyes for look of love. 
And hungering for a word of praise! 

— British Weekly. 



A RETIRING COMPETENCY FOR THE 
RETIRED MINISTER 



PART II 
THE CLAIM FOREMOST 

THE CHURCH'S 
PROGRAM AND BUSINESS 



The Declaration of the Church that the Claim 
of the Retired Minister is Foremost in the 
Churches has resulted in the creation of regularly 
established Boards to enable the Church to meet 
its just Obligation to provide a Retiring Compe- 
tency. The fact that the Business World recog- 
nizes the Principle of Old Age Pensions for Em- 
ployees reacts helpfully on the Churches. 



iTwrrT^f '*»f ri" "*'■, 



10 



Sweets 175 



Stewart 183 



CHAPTER I. THE CHURCH'S PROGRAM 

_ PAGE 

1. The Foremost Claim Picrson 149 

2. The Protestant Episcopal Church McClure 151 

Prayer for Clergy Relief. McClure . . 163 
Ministers and Horses. Mcllvaine — 
Leslie's 164 

3. The Presbyterian Church Foulkes 165 

Table of Annuity Rates. Foulkes . . .174 

4. The Presbyterian Church (Southern) . . 

A Sunset Song. Best 181 

Veterans in God's Army. Atlanta 
Constitution 182 

5. The Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 

Worn-out Preachers. Fitzgerald 191 

Superannuate Endowment Fund. 
Hoss 192 

The Church's ObUgation. Denny ... 193 

General Conference Report 193 

The Baptist Church Matteson 195 

The Congregational Program Rice 205 

The Congregational Church Loomis 207 

Disciples of Christ Warren 213 

Touch of a Vanished Hand. Troland.218 

The Veteran's Hand. Welch 218 

The Reformed (Dutch) Church Wortman 219 

German Baptists 221 

New Zealand Churches 222 

British Wesleyans 222 

Jewish Rabbis 223 

The Gist of It 224 

11. The Methodist Episcopal Church Hingeley 225 

Some Beginnings 229 

The Plan in 1789 230 



THE FOREMOST CLAIM 

THE REV. ARTHUR T. PIERSON, D.D. 



There is singular unity in the work of the Church not 
always apprehended even by her members. The manifoldness 
of that benevolent work all finds a center of revolution in 
the ministry. If the aged servants of God, those prematurely 
disabled, or the families of those who have died in the work, 
are left to want and destitution, our whole system is wretch- 
edly and inexcusably defective. 

The Hebrew economy was in advance of anything that 
has thus far characterized the Christian Church. The 
Levites, set apart to the service of the sanctuary, were pro- 
vided for on a magnificent scale. Having no proper inherit- 
ance among the Children of Israel, they nevertheless were 
assured from any possible want from the cradle to the grave, 
and their widows and orphans after them. The abundant 
tithes and offerings, the levitical cities and their suburbs, 
and the sacredness of their calling, assured to all those who 
stood before the Lord to minister to Him, the most ample, 
continuous, and unfailing supply of all their wants. 

For Ourselves We Regard This as Foremost in Its 
Claim on the Churches. 

A candidate for the ministry in his vigor may manage 
so as to supplement parental aid by the work of his own 
hands, or, even without any outside help, carry on his 
studies; and his youthful energy may bear the strain. The 
minister, in the prime of his powers, may be able to supple- 
ment a small salary by the work of his brawn or brain, or by 
rigid economy make a little suffice. But when old age or 
premature decay of his powers disables him from work with 
mind or muscle, who shall then care for him but the Church 
he has served? 

We honestly believe that to-day nothing hinders young 
men of promise from entering the ministry more frequently 
than the prospect of no provision for old age, or of a family 

149 



150 



THE RETIBED MINISTER 



left in premature dependence without a head ! A business 
man out of his business success gathers a provision against 
these exigencies. But most ministers, by far the majority, 
have barely enough to support their families, and cannot 
lay up against the future. They ought not to be compelled 
to do so. 

In the nature of the case the ministry can never be and 
ought never to be a money-making profession. We believe 
(lod never meant the place of a minister to be ordinarily 
one of ample means or elegant luxury; but He does mean 
that no minister should be "entangled in affairs of this life"; 
and to prevent tliis, it is more important than any other one 
thing to assure every servant of God that whatever self-denial 
may be incident to the days of his actual and active labor, 
when the day of work is over he shall not suffer want for the 
necessities of life, or, if prematurely called hence, shall not 
leave a wife and children to be cast on the charity of the very 
Church he has self-denyingly served. 

It is an insult to call this charity. It is in the very highest 
sense a debt, and should be so honored as an imperative obli- 
gation owed to those who use their days of strength in the 
service of our Lord; and no blessing can be expected on a 
Church which allows the veteran soldier of Christ to go down 
to his grave like an inmate of a poorhouse or a dependent 
on charity, looking for a miserable pittance bestowed as on a 
beggar, for the bare subsistence of life. 



"They served us without asking any questions, in the per- 
formance of a duty which is laid upon us as well as upon 
them. Their duly had nothing to do with them or with their 
own personal and peculiar interests. They did not give their 
lives for themselves; they ga\'e their lives for us. That 
is the way in which men grow distinguished, and that is the 
only way — by serving somebody else than themselves. A war 
of service is a war in which it is a proud thing to die." 

Xo; President Wilson was not speaking of Retired Minis- 
ters. He was speaking of the Vera Cruz heroes. But he 
might have said all that, and more too, of the Veteran 
Preachers and their ''Cause of Justice and Benevolence.'' 




THE CHURCH'S 
PROGRAM 

THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL 
CHURCH 

THE REV. A. J. P. McCLURE, D.D. 

Treasurer and Financial Agent 
General Clergy Relief Fund 



Dr. Agnew of the Presbyterian Church was almost accu- 
rately truthful, as well as brilliant and witty, when he said 
that the clergy are idolized at 30; criticized at 40; ostracized 
at 50; Oslerized at 60 and canonized at 70. Such a pithy 
sketch of a Minister's career deserves a place in our anthology 
of American epigrams. 

You have asked me "to state what is being done by the 
Protestant Episcopal Church to provide for the aged and dis- 
abled clergy, and the widows and orphans." I answer briefly. 

Eaely Organization 

The Episcopal Church in this country began very early to 
consider this important matter. Indeed, the first general 
meeting of Bishops, clergy, etc., was called to consider ways 
and means to this end. 

As a result of this early Conference, semi-insurance organ- 
izations diocesan and mutual contributing societies of various 
kinds sprang up. I mention a few as types of the Avay men's 
minds were working. "The Corporation for the Relief of 
the Widows and Children of Clergymen in Communion with 
the Church of England in America," was chartered in 1769 
in the Province of New York. The title was changed latei" 
so as to read : "The Corporation etc. in the United States of 
America." Still later the title was changed so as to apply 
only to the Diocese of New York. This old society, requiring 
dues from the clergy, is still in active existence, and like 
others of the same kind, whicli split off from the original or- 
ganization as new dioceses were formed required a contribu- 
tion or a payment of a specific amount from church or clergy, 

151 



152 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

or the payment of dues. Other societies were organized as 
insurance or semi-insurance companies. Many of these are 
still in existence, as for instance in the Dioceses of Connecti- 
cut, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Chi- 
cago, South Carolina, etc. All are more or less limited both 
geographically and in their application to clergy, widows and 
orphans. As a rule they are unprogressive and the amounts 
granted are inadequate; usually about one hundred dollars 
per annum. One of the best of these old societies is still in 
existence in the Diocese of Pennsylvania. It bears a tremend- 
ous name, as was the fashion in those days : "The Corpora- 
tion for the Belief of the Widows and Children of Clergymen 
in Communion with the Protestant Episcopal Church in the 
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania." It was organized in 17G9, 
and has built up a large capital fund. It grants insurance to 
clergymen for their widows and children on premiums which 
are about one half those required by regular insurance organ- 
izations. Although this corporation is pursuing a most gen- 
erous and liberal policy, permitting the payments of premiums 
to cease after fifteen years and making grants out of the sur- 
plus to especially needy widows and orphans without regard 
to the amount of the original insurance, the clergy as a whole 
do not take large advantage of this cheap and safe insurance. 
The clergy are and ought to be other-worldly minded, but one 
suspects that some of them drift along rather helplessly and 
do not exercise ordinary exemplary thrift in these matters. 

When dioceses began to form and split off throughout the 
Church they made provision for those within their bounds by 
recommending or directing that an annual offering be taken 
in all the parishes and missions usually at Christmas time; 
and in time this offering came to be known as the Christmas 
Fund. In many dioceses this fund was divided into two parts, 
under two Boards, permitting a choice of offering on the part 
of contributors i. e., a fund for the old and disabled clergy, 
and a fund for the widows and orphans. At one time there 
were as many of these societies as there were dioceses in the 
Church. Another type of society, bearing the title, "The 
Clergyman's Retiring Eund Society of the Protestant Epis- 
copal Church in the IJnited States of America,'' was founded 
in 1874. Its benefits apply only to the clergy who reach the 
age of 60; not to sick and disabled clergymen or to widows and 



THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH 153 

orphans; nor even to the clergyman's estate. The dues are 
$12, $21: or $36 per year, and the Society pays to its memhers 
when they reach the age of sixty a portion of the interest upon 
accumulated funds and contributions, in accordance with the 
dues paid and years of membership. If the man dies before 
sixty neither his widow nor his orphans, nor his estate benefit 
by his connection with the society. As is evident the scope of 
the society is limited, but it justifies itself by declaring, "This 
one thing Ave do." It has among its membership a goodly 
number of Bishops and clergy who pay annual dues, and 
has gathered to itself a permanent fund of nearly $400,000. 
Another type of clerical help is that represented by the 
"Clergymen's Mutual Insurance League," incorporated in 
1869. Any clergyman over forty-five years of age and in good 
health may become a member. Upon the death of a member, 
all contribute an assessed sum to be given to the widow. 

Clergy Homes 

Besides these organizations, we have also various homes, 
and plans for homes and rest houses, and lands for clerical 
cottages, as for instance, the splendid location at Pacific 
Grove, California, under the auspices of the Diocese of Cali- 
fornia, where cottages can be built on land furnished by the 
association. There is also the modest clergy house at Saluda, 
North Carolina; and the plans for a Clerical Village to be 
built in connection with the Cathedral at Washington; a 
scheme very dear to my heart and the outgrowth of my own 
suggestion. A large sum of money has been left by a benevo- 
lent lady for carrying out this idea. The plan is to have a series 
of cottages within the Cathedral Close, built in harmony with 
the Cathedral architecture, into which may be translated aged 
clergymen, who will be given honorable connection with the 
Cathedral staff, and take such services and morning and eve- 
ning prayer work as may be possible for them to do; while at 
other times they may fill their declining days with much 
interest through having access to the great libraries, the meet- 
ings of Congress and other events in the capital of the Nation. 

In this sketcli it has already become evident that the Epis- 
copal Church has been multiplying organizations according 
to many ideas. There have been and still are in all parts 
of the Church systems and schemes supplementing and over- 



154 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

lapping clergy help and relief. In spite of what I am about 
to tell YOU, conditions are still rather chaotic, unbusiness- 
like, unjust to the clergy and confusing to the ordinary 
churchgoer, who is not sure to what lie is giving, or to what 
local or general or special or insurance or general society he 
ought to contribute. 

General Clergy Eelief Fuxd 

And this leads me to speak of "The General Clergy Eelief 
Fund," in the shaping of whose methods and policy and work 
I have had much to do. As the Church grew and spread to 
missionary fields, foreign and domestic, it became evident that 
some general provision .ought to be made for the whole Church, 
looking toward larger cooperation and greater justice, and 
providing for those in missionary jurisdictions, which are not 
able to have local funds. Therefore, in 1853 there was insti- 
tuted a general society, covering the whole Church and bear- 
ing the cumbersome but descriptive name: "The Trustees of 
the Fund for the Eelief of Widows and Orphans of De- 
ceased Clerg}TQen, and of Aged, Infirm and Disabled Clergy- 
men of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United 
States of America." This General Society with its long, 
cumbersome, descriptive name was not popular, because it 
seemed to conflict with diocesan and other societies that 
were seeking contributions for their ot\ti local funds. It was 
not pushed; it was not known and did not get large contri- 
butions. By the time of the Civil War it was almost ex- 
tinct and forgotten. But the problem of the poorer dio- 
ceses and the missionary jurisdictions, and the multiplied 
chaotic, uiichristlike and unbusinesslike situation still re- 
mained. In 1871 at the General Convention of the Church, 
the copyright of the new H}'mnal together with the royalty 
upon its sales was turned over to the General Society, and 
the trustees w>ere made a committee to revise and prepare 
the new Hymnal for publication. Some of the older clergy 
even began to call the General Society, "The Ilpnnal Fund 
Committee" — an easier task than attempting to remember the 
long legal name. The royalty on the H}Tnnal brought in quite 
a sum of money, and the General Society was given a new 
start. But there was still the conflict of interest between the 
General Fund and the diocesan funds. The local funds in 



a 



THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH 155 

order to protect themselves px'ovided certain eligibility tests. 
A clergyman must have been in a diocese a certain number 
of years; he must have been officially connected with the dio- 
cese ; he must have had a church in the diocese ; he must have 
had a seat or vote in the Diocesan Convention; he must have 
had a record of a series of annual contributions, etc., etc. 
Failing in any one of these, the clergyman or the clergyman's 
widow and childi^en found themselves at the critical period 
unable to receive help from the fund they had helped build up. 

Un-ificatton of Societies 

About fourteen years ago the writer of this paper became 
the active agent and treasurer of the General Society. His 
first effort was to point out the advantages of the unifica- 
tion of all societies in the Church and the injustice of the 
diocesan system; and to urge inclusiveness and brotherly 
ideals such as should animate Christians in doing this great 
and necessary work for the whole Church. He urged the 
fact that the clergy are ordained to the ministry of the whole 
Church, not to a diocese. He established correspondence 
between the general fund and all kindred funds and societies 
in the Church, to the end that there might be an understand- 
ing and a practical cooperation between all the agencies, and 
a general bureau which should record all that was done by 
the Church in the matter of clergy relief, in order that every- 
thing should be done intelligently and in the most efficient 
way. The diocesan or local system was vigorously attacked, 
and to-day, after unaccountable opposition here and there, 
sixty-seven of the eighty-odd dioceses and missionary juris- 
dictions have merged with the General Society, and depend 
on it for pension and relief. 

The next move was to get rid of the old and cumbersome 
title wliich had caused no end of confusion in legacies and 
bequests and to adopt the simple and inclusive title which 
the General Society now bears, viz: "The General Clergy 
Relief Fund." 

The advantages of unity have been manifested by a finer 
and more catholic and Christian spirit in the whole business; 
greater definiteness, system and unity in pressing the matter 
upon the whole Church; larger interest and larger offerings; 
less expense in management ; but above all in a simple, just 



156 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

and uniform system of making grants and providing pension 
and relief. In making grants the trustees assume a definite 
responsibility to provide a definite sum. This means that 
there must be definiteness and even superfluity of resources. 
Oiferings from individuals and churches and dioceses fluctu- 
ate. Hard times or local depression lessen the amount of 
the offerings. Legacies and bequests are irregular. An en- 
dowment fund was necessary and was agitated for years. Fi- 
nally, in 1907, a commission was created to raise an Endow- 
ment Fund of five million dollars for the whole of clergy relief, 
tliat is, for the old and disabled clergy, the widows and orphans 
of clergy, the family unit, and for pensions at sixty-four years, 
as the canons specify. 

Automatic Pexsioxs at Sixty-Fouk 

Some years before the Convention which took this action, 
the present Treasurer and Financial Agent had discovered a 
desire on the part of some to contribute to a fund to be set 
aside by the General Society, the interest to be used solely 
as a pension for every clergyman who had reached the age of 
sixty-four, without regard to disability or other limitation, 
and had inaugurated such a fund, and called it ^^The Fund for 
Automatic Pensions at Sixty-Four." Shortly after the com- 
mission appointed to raise the five million dollar endowment 
began work, it decided to use the money so raised simply for 
Automatic Pensions at Sixty-Four, making the eftort a 
straightout pension proposition. But the Church was not 
ready to devote so large a sum to that one purpose. Tlie 
ideal, no doubt, was fine, but the current needs of the dis- 
abled clergy, widows and orphans were pressing and besides 
a more deiinite system was required for the whole business. 
Consequently, the effort did not meet with the success ex- 
pected, and at the last General Convention in New York the 
commission asked to be excused, in view of the new and com- 
prehensive plan which will be explained later. 

How is the money provided for the current w^ork of the 
General Clergy Eelief Fund? After years of agitation and 
suggestion the General Convention ordered that every parish, 
mission and congregation should take up an annual offering. 
This requirement is more or less observed throughout the 
Church; but, alas, there is neither penalty nor sufficient 



THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH 157 

authority to compel contributions! Many of the dioceses, 
while adopting the order and recommendation of the General 
Convention, have retained their old custom of an offering at 
Christmas time. Others have selected Thanksgiving; some 
Quinquagesima or Charity Sunday because of the Collect used 
on that day; others Good Friday, Easter or All Saints Day. 
This irregularity is rather an advantage as it brings in money 
throughout the year, making it easier to send appeals to 
the churches, to circularize the clergy and to do the account- 
ing work. It also provides money at desirable intervals 
for quarterly payments to beneficiaries. Another provision of 
the General Convention was to recommend that a certain 
percentage of the communion alms received at every admin- 
istration of the Holy Communion be set aside and sent to 
the treasurer of the General Clergy Eelief Fund. These offer- 
ings, together with the royalties on the standard Hymnal and 
on the Mission Hymnals, are the sources of income. 

Beneficiaries 

As to who may be pensioners or beneficiaries, the canon or 
system of rules under which the trustees work reads : 

"The widow of any deceased clergyman, remaining un- 
married, the children of any deceased clergyman until they 
have reached the age of twenty-one years, unless they shall 
have married before that age, and any clergyman perma- 
nently disabled, or having reached the age of sixty-four years, 
shall be entitled in the discretion of the trustees to share in 
the benefits of this fund. All applications to the trustees 
shall have the written recommendation of the Bishop, or, in 
case there be no Bishop, of the clerical members of the stand- 
ing committee of the diocese or missionary district to which 
the applicant may belong.^' 

The procedure is something like this: A clergyman or 
widow or orphan applies or application is made for them by the 
Bishop or by some clergyman or friend, and a form for 
information is sent to the applicant to be filled and sent to 
the Bishop for his endorsement. It then comes before the 
trustees, and a grant is made as speedily and as generously 
as the funds permit. Grants up to six hundred dollars per 
year for current need (disability through sickness of young 
or old clergy, and to the widows and orphans) go out to any 



158 THE RETIRED MIXISTER 

reputable clergyman of the Episcopal Church in quick re- 
sponse to the call, and they go into all dioceses and into 
se\'eral foreign countries in which the applicants are living. 
There is but little red-tape and a maximum of humanity, 
Christianity and helpfulness. There are no fees, no dues, 
no geographical limitations, no physical examinations nor age 
requirements; except that the interest-pension checks from 
the special fund for Automatic Pensions at Sixty-Four go out 
only to men who are sixty-four years old or over, without 
regard to need but only to years of honorable service. 

The General Society is doing a wide and gracious work 
which is abundantly certified to by thousands of grateful and 
appreciative letters. It has awakened the Church, and indeed 
other Christian bodies, to an active interest and effort to 
solve the whole problem of clerical support and pension and 
relief. The present condition of the General Clergy Relief 
Fund is indicated by the following statement of one of the 
trustees made to the last General Convention. I quote: 

"It is the most encouraging report that we have ever pre- 
sented to any General Convention. We call especial atten- 
tion to the total receipts of $678,243.44, to the total appro- 
priations to beneficiaries of $306,882.40, and to the low ratio 
of expense of administration — five and eight tenths per cent. 
When the present treasurer began his work we were receiv- 
ing from churches and individuals about $43,000 in three 
years; now a total from all sources of nearly $700,000. When 
the present treasurer began we were paying about $76,000 in 
three years to beneficiaries; now, over $306,000. During the 
term of the present treasurer we have paid to beneficiaries a 
total of over $800,000 and nearly a million and a half dollars 
have passed through the treasurer's hands for current pen- 
sion and relief, and for investment. In fact, receipts and 
payments to beneficiaries have nearly been doubled in every 
report made to the General Convention during his term. The 
capital funds of $90,000 are now over $600,000. The bene- 
ficiaries on the list, then about 80, are now 669. Then no 
dioceses had merged; now 67 are depending entirely upon the 
General Clergy Relief Fund." 

Church Pexsion Fund 
In conclusion, let me outline briefly the scientific and busi- 



THE EPISCOPAL CHUECH 159 

ness plan which has been prepared, by our new Commission 
and which is now before all the dioceses for adoption or rejec- 
tion. All our efforts have been working up to this plan. The 
dioceses have been merged, the work has been unified and 
Christianized, that is, made less selfish and local; the vision 
of a service pension has been thrown before the eyes of the 
Church in the phrase, "Automatic Pensions at Sixty-Four"; 
the awkward name changed to the unifying inclusive one, 
"The General Clergy Eelief Fund"; and knowledge and high 
ideals have been implanted. The new, all-embracing scien- 
tific plan has been widely noticed and heralded as epoch 
making. The commission appointed by our General Con- 
vention in 1910 "to consider the whole problem of clerical sup- 
port, pension and relief had the good fortune to secure an 
expert from the Carnegie Foundation, and the whole subject 
has been thoroughly worked out upon the basis of facts 
secured by the commission from the clergy and others, upon 
which are based the actuarial calculations. It is proposed 
under the new system to make all grants of pension and 
relief under exact rules, not only in order that every clergy- 
man may receive his pension provision without sacrifice of 
dignity, and that all suspicion of partiality may be removed 
from the pension administration, but in order that the 
Church may know exactly what its pension budget will be, 
and so provide resources which will meet the needs. A funda- 
mental proposition of the commission is that pension and 
relief must not be considered as a subsidiary or a by-work of 
the Church, but must be considered as a vital and consider- 
able part of all direct salaries and support. Therefore, inas- 
much as pension and relief require a considerable portion of 
the active salary, this proportion must be provided in the same 
manner that the salary is provided; that is, that every organ- 
ization in the Church, parochial, diocesan or otherwise, that 
pays a salary or a stipend or a remuneration to a clergyman 
must automatically increase its appropriations by a certain 
fixed percentage, the increase to provide a pension for the 
clergyman and his family. By such a method when money 
is needed to pay the pension, the money will be on hand. 

The retirement age is set at sixty-eight and the pension 
provision is one and one fourth per cent of the average sti- 
pend received by the clergyman since the time of his ordina- 



160 THE RETIRED MIXISTEE 

tion multiplied by the years of stipend. This means in gen- 
eral about half the average stipend for those clerg3'men who 
are ordained at the usual age, and reach sixty-eight years of 
age and have work and place during that time. The system 
provides also that for those disabled before the retirement 
age a pension shall be granted amounting to forty per cent 
of the last stipend. To the widow of a clergyman it is pro- 
posed to grant an annuity equal to one half the pension the 
hus])and would have been entitled to during marriage, with 
a minimum of $300 per year, provided that the marriage 
took place before the husband's retirement. For minor 
orphans of clergymen it is proposed to pay $100 for each 
child under seven years; $200 for each child between seven 
and fourteen years; and $300 for each dependent minor over 
fourteen years old. 

Sufficient money for this system, it is estimated, will be 
provided by assessing about seven and one half per cent on 
the salaries of all clergy, to be paid into the central pension 
fund not by the clergy themselves but by the dioceses. A 
very original feature is the sharp segregation of what is 
called "The Fund for Accrued Liabilities" from "The Fund 
for the Continuing Liabilities," which is only for those who 
are ordained after the plan is put in operation. 

In other words, the complete, scientific and self-supporting 
pension system will apply only to those men Avho are ordained 
after it goes into operation. The present clergy upon the 
list are to be provided for by a lump sum of three and a half 
millions of dollars raised for what has been called the "Ac- 
crued Liabilities." The insistence upon the separation of the 
"Accrued Liabilities" from the "Continuing Liabilities" has 
been unflinching, because careful investigation has shown 
that most pension systems have had hard sledding at the 
eleventh year after their establishment. At that time there 
is such an accumulation of accrued and continumg liabilities 
as to make it necessary either to raise more money or adopt 
a new system. The "xlccrued Liabilities Fund" will not pro- 
vide as large a pension as the pension system itself when it 
fully gets into operation; and alas! even under this latter 
one and one fourth per cent of the salaries of the clergy 
divided by the years of service will not bring in a sufficient 
pension allowaiice ])efore twenty-five or thirt}^ 3'ears. Such 



THE EPISCOPAL CHUECH 161 

is the penalty of delay in adopting a system that will stand 
alone and grow as the Church grows. A minimum pension 
of six hundred dollars per year and a maximum of two thou- 
sand dollars has heen ordered ; the average will he ahout eight 
hundred or nine hundred dollars. 

The new Church Pension Fund, huilt upon these lines,, 
proposes to deal with the dioceses in making the required 
assessments; emphasizing the fact that if there is no pay 
there will he no pension. A record and account will ba 
kept with every clergyman as to his age at ordination, date 
of marriage, wife's age, number and ages of children, salary 
at each period, when employed, etc., etc. Each diocese will be 
notified annually from these statistics and from actuarial cal- 
culations of the men in the dioceses who will reach the retiring 
age, the number of widows and orphans, the number per- 
manently disabled, etc. In other words the financial require- 
ment for the year will be accurately indicated to each diocese, 
and the diocese must assess this amount upon its churches, 
reducing its assessment by the interest upon any endowment 
funds it may have. If there is a deficit on the part of some 
of the churches it Avill reduce the pension and relief grants 
to individuals in that particular diocese by so much. 

Such is only the barest outline of an admirable piece of 
work by the commission and its expert secretary. The scheme 
has been presented in part to the various dioceses and until 
the meeting of the General Convention in 1916 it will be 
carefully considered. The whole scheme is scientific and busi- 
nesslike and seems from the scientific point of view to be per- 
fect and without an alternative. The immediate inference 
from this statement of the new Church Pension Fund scheme 
is that those who have small salaries will receive small pen- 
sions, and that those who receive large salaries will receive 
large pensions, and, therefore, the question will arise whether 
it will not produce self-seeking and work as a penalty upon 
self-denial, and the willingness of men to go to hard places 
where salaries are small and irregular, even though the har- 
vest is great. It is a question, also, whetlier this essentially 
Christian enterprise can safely be taken out of the realm of 
practical Cliristian cliarity and made simply a scientific, me- 
chanical business matter, observing only the hard natural law 
of supply and demand: "To lilm that hatli shall be given." 




162 



THE EETIEED MINISTER 



Perhaps in the Church we need to remember and observe a 
higher spiritual law, namely, *'Bear ye one another's burdens 
and so fulfill the law of Christ." Of course, all we do in the 
Church should be done with regard to strict business efficiency 
and integrity, but the Church is not a business enterprise as is 
a railroad or a corporation in the sense of being a money-mak- 
ing organization or in having a regular scale of salary for 
officers of different grades. However, it may be found that 
there is more justice and humanity, as a whole, in the defi- 
niteness and liberality which will be provided by an adherence 
to strictly scientific and business methods. It would seem, 
liowever, that even after the Church has provided pension and 
relief for the clergy and widows on the basis of years of 
service and the amount of their salaries while in service, 
there will still remain special requirements which may justly 
arouse generous im^^ulses and call for special help. 

VlSIOX OF UXTTY 

My brethren, 1 bid you Godspeed and success in your own 
great enterprise. You will succeed, I am sure. The vigorous, 
virile, energetic way you Methodists have of attacking this 
and other problems is stimulating and worthy of imitation. 
Your Church has grown greater and more effective in many 
respects than its mother, and I am glad and proud to have 
the approval of such a Church by your workers in the same 
line, through the use of many of my circulars and leaflets 
and writings, and by the honor of this call to stand before 
you and tell you of our efforts and accomplishments in the 
Protestant Episcopal Church. Perhaps before long this inter- 
communication will lead us to larger, finer and more truly 
Christian things. I wish I had the time and the eloquence 
to tell you of the noble vision of largeness and unity which 
a half dozen or more of us, representatives of clergy relief 
societies in various denominations, were permitted to see and 
live with for a whole winter, as we met under the call and 
plan and stimulus of 3'our Dr. Crandall J. Xorth. The story 
has never been told in public. Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, 
German Reformed, Presbyterian, Episcopalian secretaries 
and treasurers and other representatives doing this same work 
in our separate bodies, met in New York and prayed and 
talked and devised a large scheme for a great Union Founda- 



THE EPISCOPAL CHUECH 163 

tion to be established for all churches; a plan which if we 
coulcl have carried it through would have done more for Chris- 
tian unity than many loose federations. 0, that the Lord 
had opened the eyes of the rich men and women we appealed 
to and had permitted them to see this vision and what it 
would lead to aside from the material plans for help. It was 
a great vision. My honored friend, Dr. North, may yet be 
canonized for this at 70 if he is not Oslerized before that time. 

It was a delight and inspiration to work and think, if 
only for a few hours each week, with men of one mind, filled 
with earnestness on this subject. We railed and declaimed, 
without quit or hindrance of missionary boards or of the 
sound of the grinding of the ecclesiastical machinery, at the 
curious Christianity that was all the time asking for more 
money to send more men to the front, and was forgetting or 
neglecting those who had been at the front, but who are now 
on the Honor Poll of the invalid corps. But through it all 
we caught the vision of what was to be when God^s kingdom 
should come. 

Philadelphia, Pa. Alfred J. P. McClure. 



Reaper for tfje (general Clergp Belief :f unb 

w^ K.orb Sftaui €f)xisit, W\)ou graciouss ^fjepfjcrb anb JSisitJop 
^^ of our £foulfi(, toe liejfeecf) tEfiee for ^ClJP ministering ficrbantjf, 
noto ageb anb infirm, anb no longer atile to toorb as> actibe 
laborer^ in ^i)y binrparb. Heabe tijem not, neitfier forsfabe tfjem 
in litis tfjeir fjour of temporal toant anb tiatvta. ©pen tfje 
i)eart£( anb fianbsf of ^I)p people for tfjeir siupport anb comfort, 
tfiat tfieir patttoap to tf)e grabe map be free from all toorlblp 
tavti anb anxieties. Het tfje funb tofjicfj (Cfjp Cfjurcfj f)a* 
egtablisfjeb for tfjeir relief be increaseb manp folb, tftat neither 
tfjep nor tfjeir fjelplesijs toiboto£f anb orpfjang map eber come to 
toant or fjabe cause to complain of our neglect, but as tfje 
members of one familp anb fjousefjolb of faitlj, map toe reioice 
togetfjer in Wi)p lobe sfjeb abroab in our fjearts tfjrougfj tlje 
Same HTesus Cljrist, our most JSlesseb Uorb anb feabiour. 
ISmen. 



164 



THE EET11?ED MINISTER 



MINISTERS AND HORSES 

It pays better to be a faithful horse than a faithful min- 
ister when old age comes on. ^^Many a man," said the Rev. 
J. H. Mcllvaine, addressing Episcopal laymen at Pittsburgh, 
"makes better provision for an old horse than is made by the 
Church for her old ministers." As this is not hyperbole, but 
literal truth, it is a severe indictment of the churches. Dr. 
Mcllvaine cited his own denomination — the Protestant Epis- 
copal — which, though not the largest numerically, is one of 
the wealthiest in the country, and yet which gives only nine 
or ten cents per member to the support of its old and worn-out 
clergy. He welcomed the coming of the business man to the 
front in our churches, because in this wav finances would be 
put on a business basis. Would it not be possible to interest 
the laymen in these old soldiers of the Church, who have 
fought their last fight, but who ought to be able to spend the 
few remaining years of life without coming to actual want? 

We are busy discussing pensions for school teachers, public 
servants and veteran workers of all kinds. Would not an 
agitation for better pensions for old preachers be in order? 
Surely the ministry is not a more selfish or remunerative 
calling than the others. Thirty men, contributing outright 
$3,000,000, have established in New York the New Theater, 
designed to cultivate the highest and best in dramatic art, 
free from any sort of influence from the box office. No divi- 
dends are to be paid, but any profits accruing are to go toward 
a permanent fund devoted to the enlargement of the original 
enterprise. The drama needs to be fostered in just the way 
the New Theater plans to do it, and we have no criticism of 
the princely philanthropy back of the project. But we raise 
the question, If thirty men in New York can give $3,000,000 
for the stage, are there not throughout the country one hun- 
dred millionaires who could together put up a $10,000,000 
fund to pension old and needy ministers? Business men of 
the churches, here is a practical proposition. We believe you 
can put it through. — Leslie s Weekly. 




THE CHURCH'S 
PROGRAM 

THE PRESBYTERIAN 
CHURCH 

THE REV. W. H. FOULKES, D.D. 

General Secretary Ministerial Relief and 
Sustentation 



Eor nearly two centuries, the Presbyterian Cliurch has 
given attention to this fundamental Cause which represents 
the duty of the Church of Christ to the Retired Ministry. 

In Colonial days the dreadful distress of many honored men 
of the Ministry, who were left in their old days without any 
means of support, and the special distress of the widows and 
orphans of the faithful servants of the Church, appealed 
strongly to the sense of justice and duty in the hearts of 
God's people, and many were seeking some practical means 
of doing what all felt should be done for the honor of the 
Church and the relief of her suffering servants. 

At the first meeting of the Synod of Philadelphia in 1717^ 
"A Fund for Pious Uses'' was established. A treasurer was 
elected to receive contributions, and the Synod disposed of 
the money at its own discretion. This Fund was intended 
for Home Missionary work, to aid a school in Philadelphia, 
for such other objects as the Synod might determine, and 
for the relief of disa])led Ministers and their families, and 
the first appropriation from the Fund, of which we have 
any record, was made in 1721 for the relief of two widows of 
Ministers. 

Board of Relief 

After a century and a half of loosely organized work, on 
May 29, 187G, the General Assembly organized the Board 
of Ministerial Relief, which has for its cumbersome title, 
the caption "The Presbyterian Board of Relief for Disabled 
Ministers, and the Widows and Orphans of Deceased Min- 
isters." The purpose for which this corporation was formed 
was to receive, hold and disburse such real and personal 

165 



166 THE RETIRED MIKISTER 

estate as may be given to it for the relief and support of dis- 
abled Ministers and the needy Widows and Orphans of De- 
ceased Ministers of said Church. Eroni the date of this 
organization until this day, the Board of Relief has grown in 
favor with the Church. Its appeal has been one that has 
touched the heart of Presbyterianism. Its policy has been 
to secure, by means of annual contributions from the Church, 
legacies and individual donations, a sufHcient sum of money 
to meet in some way the need of the aged and disabled serv- 
ants of the Church ; but while the Board of Relief has thus, to 
a certain extent, met the need of the disabled ministry of 
Presbyterianism, it has never overtaken that need. It has 
attempted to do an impossible thing, namely, to meet relative 
need upon the basis of annual appeals therefor. 

SUSTENTATION 

As a result of this failure and, in part, as a result of con- 
servative policies on the part of the Board, the General As- 
sembly in 1909 organized the Ministerial Sustentation Fund, 
which embodied the contributory pension idea, and which 
permitted Ministers, by making a regular annual, semi- 
annual or quarterly payment, to provide in part for their own 
day of disability. The maximum benefits of the Sustenta- 
tion Fund are $500 a year during lifetime for every man 
who has reached the age of seventy and who has served the 
Presbyterian Church thirty full years. For the Mmister who 
has reached the age of seventy, without having served thirty 
full years in the Presbyterian Church, a maximum pension 
of $100 for the first five years of his ministry, plus $10 for 
every year's service thereafter. For the Minister who has 
become disabled, whatever his age, a maximum pension of 
$100 for the first five years of his ministry, plus $10 for every 
additional year. A maximum pension of three fifths of the 
amount to which her husband would have been entitled or 
was receiving is to be paid to every widow, or if no widow 
survive him, to be divided between the dependent children, if 
any, of the deceased member of the Fund. The principle of 
the Fund is that the Minister's own payments provide one 
fifth of the maximum pension, and the contributions of the 
churches, by means of gifts to the Endowment Fund and 
otherwise, are made to swell the total annuity up to the 




THE PRESBYTEEIAN eilURCH 167 

maximum amount. Already the Church has provided enough 
money on the basis of nearly a thousand Ministers who 
are paying rates to the Sustentation Department to make pos- 
sible the payment of 60 per cent of the maximum pension to 
the disabled members of the Fund. 

For a number of years after the formation of the Susten- 
tation Fund there was^ I regret to say, friction between these 
two agencies, each of which was seeking the same general 
result, though in different ways, but in 1912 the General 
Assembly combined these agencies under the title of "The 
Presbyterian Board of Ministerial Relief and Sustentation"; 
both charters remaining intact and both corporations being 
administered in law by the same Board of Directors and the 
same executive officers. To-day Presbyterianism faces its 
great task of providing for its aged and disabled servants 
with a harmonious and complete plan; on the one side Relief, 
which is the ambulance at the foot of the hill which will con- 
tinue to provide for those who may have need in the day of 
their dependency; on the other hand Sustentation, which will 
growingly assist men now young to provide in part for their 
disability or old age, thus building a fence around the top of 
the hill of disability. 

Relief 

The Relief Department of the Board of Relief and Sus- 
tentation is organized to give gracious relief to those who in 
their service have come to need. There is no badge of shame 
in their necessity. It is the brand of the Lord Jesus. Those 
Christians who speak contemptuously of the "poor minister" 
may well ask themselves whether after all they are not merely 
"badge wearers," while the Minister is a branded servant 
"drinking His Lord's cup" with Him. For over a hundred 
years the Church has gathered and has given this sacred 
relief. It has never met all the absolute need of the Veterans 
of the cross. They have borne the most of it themselves. 
The Church has measurably met relative need. The Board 
of Relief has gathered what the Church would give and has 
given it as widely as it could, but the Church has never given 
one tenth enough to meet the need fully and honorably. 
The gifts of the Church have never overtaken the wants of 
the saints. The Presbyterian Church last year provided for 



168 THE RETIRED MINISTER 

practically two thousand dependent Ministers, missionaries 
and their families, seven hundred of whom were widows. 

During the current year the Relief Department has appro- 
priated approximately $30,000 more than last year, while the 
Church has only given approximately $7,000 more than last 
year. It would be the height of folly to deprive those who 
are now disabled in order to provide for the ^linistry of a 
half century hence. The disabled Ministry of to-day must 
be cared for now and first. The fact that last year only four 
churches out of ten gave to the relief of these disabled serv- 
ants indicates that the Presbyterian Church must "go on to 
perfection.^' The Pension Department of Ministerial Relief 
and Sustentation is steadily growing. If the Church were to 
attempt to establish in one year a pension plan to protect all 
her Ministers, and were able to comj^el every Minister to 
contribute his part, she would have to invest many millions 
of dollars all at once. By the present plan, however, she 
makes it possible for her to build up her part of the pen- 
sion as rapidly as she will, the minister only receiving a pro 
rata share of the pension according to the measure of her 
gifts. There are those in the Presbyterian Church who 
think that it is enough to relieve need as it arises and as 
largely as possible. The Church, however, has determined to 
test her own mettle and to prove the promises of God by 
attempting to do both; first and foremost, to relieve the need 
that now exists or that will yet be met; second and equally 
vital, to build up a reserve fund so generous in its propor- 
tions and so constantly enriched that as its bounty is drawn 
upon from year to year it will be constantly replenished. A 
Relief Department alone would continue to meet relative 
need, but would never overtake it. A Pension Department 
alone would gradually build up an adequate support in the 
days of their disability for those uniting with it, but would 
overlook both those now disabled and those who, for years to 
come, would be unable or unwilling to contribute toward its 
upbuilding. The Relief and Sustentation Department work- 
ing together as the Assembly has directed, each supplement- 
ing the other, each vital to the Church and both supported 
by the Church, constitute the solution of the problem which, 
in the words of our own Robert E. Speer, is its "holiest and 
most sacred privilege and duty.'' 



THE PRESBYTEEIAN CHURCH 169 

$10,000,000 Fund 

The General Assembly has undertaken the task of raising 
a permanent Endowment Fund of $10,000,000 by means 
of which to accomplish this task. Even this amount will 
not be adequate if the Church desires to accomplish, upon 
an actuarial basis, the whole task. I am glad to report 
that as a result of steady accumulations during the years 
and of some generous gifts recently, we have invested now 
approximately $3,000,000, and we have great encouragement 
to believe that the Church will so respond that we will have 
the total sum eventually raised. We are at present con- 
ducting campaigns in various centers of Presbyterianism. 
One that was carried on last November, in the Presbytery of 
Pittsburgh, brought us in subscriptions approximately $135,- 
000, and also, what was of more importance, gave us access 
to the hearts and consciences of Presbyterian people. Our 
plans for such campaigns reach several years into the future. 

We also depend as a Church upon annual gifts from our 
congregations for the current work of Relief, and are using 
every effort to stimulate that source of income so that those 
who are now aged and disabled may not be abandoned in the 
effort to establish a statesmanlike plan. The largest sums 
will come to us in legacies. God does not expect the average 
man of means to deplete his capital, any more than he expects 
the average carpenter to sell his hammer or saw, but to use 
them; to give an account of income now and to give on that 
day, when every one of us shall stand before the Great White 
Throne, a full and itemized account of capital. 

A Great Legacy 

I want to tell you the story of one legacy; that of Lady 
Martha Ellen Kortright, who was a Philadelphia Presby- 
terian girl. She married Lord Kortright and moved with 
him to England; and survived him without children. She 
wrote two wills; one an English will, leaving all her English 
property to English charities; the other, an American will, 
leaving her American property to four Presbyterian Insti- 
tutions — the Board of Home Missions, the Board of Educa- 
tion, the Board of Relief and the Presbyterian Hospital of 
Philadelphia. The British Government, however, with those 
qualities that sometimes are admirable and sometimes the 



170 THE EETIRED MIXISTEE 

reverse, levied an income tax upon the whole estate ; and since 
it could not collect it from the American estate it collected it 
all from the British estate and practically wiped out the 
entire British legacies. Then the British heirs sued the 
American heirs, trying to recoup themselves for this loss. 
The American heirs contended that they should not be 
compelled to suffer on account of the rapacity of the 
British Crowai. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court finally 
handed down its decision which said that these four Presby- 
terian Institutions had a right to the property, and our genial 
and efficient Treasurer, Dr. Heberton, went over to the Trust 
Company one day with his little satchel and brought to our 
office the sum of $318,0G6.69, our share of the residue of 
the estate; $48,000 of which was accrued interest. There is 
a rule of the Assembly which says that we shall not hoard 
our interest, we must spend it. So the question immediately 
arose as to hoAV we could spend our interest in the quickest 
and best way possible. It would have taken a whole year 
to have heard from the Presbyteries recommending increases. 
We felt that the $48,000 belonged to our annuitants, and we 
had a special meeting of the Board, found a resolution that 
gave us ample power, and we voted to send, without their 
knowledge or expectation, a Christmas gift of twenty-five 
dollars to each of the 1,251 annuitants then upon our roll. 

I wish that I could share with others the deep and unutter- 
able joy that has come to me from the reading of those leg- 
acies of love that have come to us from the annuitants. Our 
gifts were sent the week before Christmas. One recipient 
wrote the day before Christmas: "Yesterday my little boy 
came to me and said, ^Mother, are we going to have any 
Christmas ?' I had just spent my last twenty-five cents and 
I said to him, 'My boy, God has never forsaken us, and I 
know He never will.' '' And then she added, "When your 
letter came with its check for twenty-five dollars it seemed as 
if Jesus Himself had come into my home." 

Of those to whom we sent the gift, not a few sent back a 
tithe to the Board ! One widow wTote and said : "When your 
letter came I was in the deepest dungeon of distress. No 
one knows the desolation and loneliness of my soul ; and when 
I saw that the old Church really cared for me because of 
what my husband did, I was like a bird let loose from a cage. 



THE PRESBYTEEIAN CHTTRCH 171 

True to the practices of my sainted husband, I am sending 
you back $2.50 for your work." Such is heroism ! 

Advance Program 

The Presbyterian Church is moving forward to the ac- 
complishment of this holy task for six reasons. 

First. The care of the aged or disabled servants of any 
society or organization, by that society or organization, is uni- 
versally recognized as a paramount duty. Men everywhere 
point the finger of scorn at those institutions which enrich 
themselves on the fruitage of human toil, and then cast 
aside the toiler in the day of his old age or disability. This 
duty is both economic and moral. The producer of values, 
whether spiritual or material, deserves a fair share of that 
which he produces. It is his due. Both from an economic 
point of view which regards an old age pension as a "wage 
earned during productive years and wisely deferred for pay- 
ment to the years of disability," and from a moral point of 
view which regards the obligation to care for dependent 
classes as fundamentally just, the duty is paramount. All of 
this applies fully as much to the Church as it does to an 
industrial concern. 

Second. The adequate care of the disabled servants of 
the Church is one of the clearest duties outlined in the Word 
of God. The support of the Levite was both sufficient and 
permanent. The prophet summed up God's requirements as 
these: "to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly 
before thy God." The widow of the Gospel Minister or mis- 
sionary, who is really the heart of the whole task, is singled 
out in Scripture as the special recipient of divine tenderness 
and favor. The prophet pictured Jehovah as the "Judge of 
the widow and the Father of the fatherless," while the Apostle 
James tested the Apostolic Church by the standard of pure 
religion which consists in "visiting the fatherless and the 
widows," as well as "keeping himself unspotted from the 
world." Presbyterians boast themselves of their adherence to 
the Pauline doctrines ; they may well ask themselves how they 
are measuring up to the duties outlined by the Apostle James. 

Third. The demands which the Church makes upon her 
ministers enforce the reasonableness and the importance of 
this service. She asks that they be men set apart from a 



172 THE RETIRED MINISTER 

secular to a sacred calling. She encourages them to undergo 
a long period of preparation which involves a constant out- 
lay of money without any appreciable return as income dur- 
ing the days of apprenticeship. She bids them give her their 
unstinted energy and their undivided time. She looks with 
suspicion upon any diversion of their talents or time into 
channels of material prosperity for themselves. She rewards 
them with a bare competence, which, when it is averaged with 
the returns in any other high calling, falls fearfully below the 
level, and which is scarcely on the plane of those forms of 
labor whose economic standard is not half so high. She 
pleads with them to establish Christian homes in which chil- 
dren may grow up. She points with pride to some of the 
choicest products of her ministers^ homes, men, who are found 
in Presidents' chairs, in cabinet offices, on Judges' benches, in 
all the walks and stations of life, occupying worthily the 
highest positions. If she makes all these demands upon them, 
she owes it to them that they may be fully provided for in 
the day of their old age and disability. 

Fourth. The needs of her disabled servants rise to-day 
to the Lord God of Hosts as a cry for justice. Honored Min- 
isters who have served humbly and fruitfully for three and 
four decades are suffering the pangs of want. Aged women 
who have been left desolate by the death of those, the burdens 
of whose Ministry they have shared, are to-day tasting the 
'^inside of the cup" and are finding it bitter. Our Board 
cannot share with the Church all the intimacies of the suffer- 
ing servants of God. There are aged Ministers who have not 
sufficient or reasonable clothing suitable for the simplest 
services in the House of God. There are widows with grow- 
ing children who, toiling day and night with the needle and 
sometimes over the washboards, are not able to keep pace with 
the high cost of living, and are compelled to take promising 
lads out of high school and to deprive them of needed educa- 
tion; when in some cases the faces of the deceased Ministers' 
sons have been set toward the Gospel Ministry, despite all the 
hardships they have encountered at home. There are old 
couples drawing near the evening of life, without children 
or near relatives upon whom to lean, with barely enough to 
provide the commonest necessities of life and without one of 
its luxuries. The cry of all these is loud in the ears of the 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 173 

living and Eternal God. He is challenging His Church to- 
day, "Give ye them to eat V' 

Fifth. The mission of the Church to evangelize the world, 
so clearly recognized as her supreme duty and so imperfectly 
fulfilled, demands new efficiency in the leadership of the 
Church. She will not, cannot rise higher than the levels of 
her ordained leadership. If she will release her Ministers 
from the bondage of fear over approaching old age, she will 
unlock treasuries of power for herself. She will, by this, 
prove to a gainsaying world, that she believes in her mission 
and in her power to fulfill it. Every great economic, social 
and moral challenge which is so distortedly voiced in the 
unrest of the world, and which is so violently set forth in 
those fundamentally fallacious schemes of life that threaten 
to engulf the nation, comes eventually to the Church for its 
solution. Every great moral reform and all the redemptive 
forces of the race must be kindled into a glow at the altar of 
the Church. If her priests are heavy with the sleep of 
burdens unjustly borne, are full of fear because of the specter 
of want that will not down, her fires will flicker dimly. If 
she turns aside from her ordained leadership in the days of 
its adversity, the choicest flower of her youth will not ofl:er 
themselves for leadership in the days of their prosperity. 

Sixth. The approval of her Lord awaits her fulfillment of 
His imperative command. He who said, "Go into all the 
world,^' also said, "I was hungry and ye gave me to eat. In- 
asmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these, my 
brethren, ye did it unto me.'' It is well for Christian men 
and women to give largely to build, maintain and endow 
great institutions, libraries and art institutes, universities 
and hospitals, associations for young men and young women. 
These and a hundred other things are worthy of those wlio 
seek the approval of Christ. But if the Church shall do all 
these things, "even giving her body to be burned," and have 
not that sweet and gracious charity, that grace of love for 
those who have served her, it "will profit her nothing." "The 
Lord is mindful of His own," and if the Church has the mind 
of Christ she will seek the welfare of those who most clearly, 
although all too imperfectly, represent Him on earth. 

William H. Foulkes. 

Philadelphia, Pa. 



174 



THE EETIEED MIXISTEE 



Tables of Eates Presbyterian Sustentation Fund 

The minister continues to pay the rate corresponding to 
his age at entrance. 



21. 

22. 

23. 

24. 

25. 

26. 

27. 

28. 

29. 

30, 

31. 

32, 

33 

34 

35 

36, 

37 

38 

39 

40 

41 

42 

43, 

44 

45, 

46, 

47, 

48, 

49. 

50. 

51. 

52. 

53. 

54. 

55. 

56. 

57. 

58. 

59. 

60. 



Age 




$17 13 
16 89 
16 80 
16 82 

16 93 

17 11 
17 35 

17 67 

18 04 
18 46 

18 93 

19 47 

20 06 

20 69 

21 40 

22 16 

22 99 

23 89 

24 81 

25 89 

27 01 

28 44 

29 55 

30 97 
32 52 
34 21 
36 06 
38 08 
40 29 
42 74 
45 45 
48 44 
51 77 
55 53 
59 77 
64 61 
70 19 
76 71 
84 42 
93 69 



Semi- 
Annual 



Quarterly 



Single 
Payments 



$8 52 


$4 54 


$351 67 


8 70 


4 40 


345 88 


8 65 


4 37 


342 92 


8 51 


4 38 


341 84 


8 72 


4 49 


342 14 


8 81 


4 54 


343 58 


8 94 


4 60 


345 76 


9 10 


4 68 


348 66 


9 29 


4 78 


352 15 


9 51 


4 89 


356 45 


9 75 


5 02 


361 28 


10 03 


5 16 


366 29 


10 33 


5 31 


372 54 


10 66 


5 50 


378 75 


11 02 


5 67 


385 41 


11 41 


5 87 


392 50 


11 84 


6 09 


399 99 


12 30 


6 33 


407 81 


12 78 


6 57 


415 32 


13 33 


6 86 


424 48 


13 91 


7 16 


433 21 


14 65 


7 54 


442 29 


15 22 


7 83 


451 80 


15 95 


8 21 


461 50 


16 75 


8 62 


471 59 


17 62 


9 07 


482 17 


18 57 


9 56 


493 02 


19 61 


10 09 


504 39 


20 75 


10 68 


516 41 


22 01 


11 33 


528 95 


23 41 


12 04 


542 58 


24 95 


12 84 


556 21 


26 68 


13 72 


570 86 


28 60 


14 72 


586 12 


30 78 


15 84 


602 16 


33 27 


17 12 


618 76 


36 15 


18 60 


635 95 


39 51 


20 33 


653 78 


43 48 


22 37 


672 55 


48 25 


24 83 


692 39 




THE CHURCH'S 
PROGRAM 

THE PRESBYTERIAN 
CHURCH IN THE 
UNITED STATES 

(SOUTHERN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH) 

THE REV. HENRY H. SWEETS, D.D. 

Secretary Education and Ministerial Relief 



I count it a rare privilege to have some part in the states- 
manlike and far-reaching movement in which the Methodist 
Episcopal Church is engaged. 

Too long the enfeebled Veterans of the Ministry have been 
neglected. Too often we have been so busy in leading on the 
victorious host to greater victory and wider conquest that we 
have forgotten the command of the great King: 

''Take heed to thyself that thou forsake not the Levite as 
long as thou livest upon the earth/' 

We congratulate the great Methodist Episcopal Church 
upon her determination to remove this reproach. W^e have 
come to know and to love your leader. With a mind to com- 
prehend the abiding principles of justice and truth; with a 
heart to feel the burdens of "the saints who are in need" and 
to call forth the sympathy and help of the able and strong; 
and with such energy and enthusiasm thrown into the work, 
under the blessings of God, you cannot fail. The success and 
blessing that will surely come to you will encourage the rest 
of us, and in the lives of all our veterans will hasten the ful- 
fillment of the promise, "At evening time it shall be light." 

The Presbyterian Church in the United States, commonly 
called the Southern Presbyterian Church, came into being 
in 1861. On account of the great crisis through which our 
country was passing at that time, the Church was poor, busi- 
ness activity was at a standstill, and after the close of the 
war, her territory was impoverished and her securities worth- 
less. So many were the demands made on the new Church in 
attempting to overtake the vast destitution that abounded on 
every hand, that the new, struggling organization had little 

175 



176 



THE EETIRED MIXISTER 



opportunity or means to care for its enfeebled ministers or 
their destitute families, 

Orgaxizatioxs for Mixisterial Relief 

In 18GT the committee of Home Missions was authorized 
to appropriate five per cent of all its receipts to the relief of 
the destitute widows and children of ministers and to min- 
isters in infirm health. The next year a collection was or- 
dered from all the churches for the Relief Fund, to be handled 
by the treasurer of Home Missions. The day for this collec- 
tion was the first Sabbath in July, and this day was retained 
until 1911. The amount received from this collection in 
1869 was $3,621; in 1879, $8,381; in 1889, $12,965; in 1899, 
$11,381; in 1909, $35,035; in 1914, $5T,300. 

Not until 1901 did the General Assembly erect a separate 
agency for the conduct of this work. The Executive Com- 
mittee of Ministerial Relief began its labors in that year; the 
main stress being placed upon the annual offering for Min- 
isterial Relief, the help being given to needy ministers and 
the families of deceased ministers on the basis of age, need 
and service to the Church. 

In 1901 the General Assembly consolidated the causes of 
Education for the Ministry and Ministerial Relief, and in 
1911 a further consolidation was effected of all the executive 
agencies of the Church. The work of the Church is now 
carried on through four executive committees or boards — 
Foreign Missions, Home Missions, Sabbath Schools and Pub- 
lications, and Christian Education and Ministerial Relief. 

In 1869 another plan was suggested to the General As- 
sembly for the "Relief of the Families of Deceased Ministers," 
and during the next year an elaborate scheme was formu- 
lated for the relief of both disabled ministers and the needy 
widows and orphans of deceased ministers. In furthering 
this plan the following statement was made : 

"The scheme under consideration, unlike life insurance, 
makes no discrimination on account of age, health or the 
number of years that a minister* may have been engaged in 
preaching the gospel. The ministers are all regarded as 
officers of the Church and servants of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
and their families, in consequence, as clearly entitled to the 
beneficent provisions of the general arrangement. The only 



SOUTHERN PEESBYTERIAN CHURCH 177 

limitation or discrimination will be in relation to the number 
of annual payments that must be made by the Church before 
a minister's family can be entitled to the full amount/' 

The plan then worked out was not based upon sound, busi- 
ness principles, and both ministers and churches failed to 
contribute the necessary amounts. After many changes, in 
1885 the business was transferred to the "Clergy Friendly 
Society," a voluntary organization of business men of Balti- 
more. In 1890 these gentlemen signified their desire to re- 
linquish the trust, and the next year the funds were placed in 
tlie "Presbyterian Ministers' Fund" of Philadelphia. 

Growth of Resources 

How our ideas and the resources of the Church have grown ! 
In 1882 the General Assembly was informed that "the late 
Rev. Stuart Robinson, D.D., of Louisville, Ky., had shown 
princely liberality, so characteristic of his noble nature, in 
a munificent donation of $25,000 as a permanent endowment 
fund for this cause.'^ But the time was not ripe for such a 
forward movement, and in 1884 the General Assembly with- 
drew all claims to this bequest because the way was "not 
clear to enter upon an organized effort to increase the endow- 
ment of said fund to $100,000, which was evidently con- 
templated by this venerable servant of God." In 1901 a 
movement was finally launched looking to the establishment 
of a permanent fund, the interest of which should be used in 
relieving the necessities of infirm ministers and needy widows 
and orphans. In 1902 this Endowment Fund was $298.30. 
In 1906 an elder in tlie First Presbyterian Church, Atlanta, 
Ga., offered to give the sum of $100,000 to the Endowment 
Fund, provided $125,000 was added to the $25,000 wdiich was 
the amount of the Endowment Fund at that time. In a short 
time this condition was met, and the Endowment Fund im- 
mediately increased to $250,000. 

In more recent years the Church has constantly been dis- 
turbed by a heavy debt I'esting upon the Foreign Mission 
C(mimittee and, witli other urgent matters on hand, the 
time never seemed propitious for a church-wide campaign for 
tlie enlargement of the Endowment Fund. Some amounts 
have been added through bequests. A few churches, Sunday 
schools and societies have contributed small amounts, and a 



178 THE EETIRED MIXISTER 

few interested persons have made annual contributions to it. 
The fund now amounts to $326,000. 

The Pres])yterian Cliurch in the United States is composed 
of 3,430 churches, 1,819 ministers and 311,000 communicants. 
We have on the roll of Ministerial Eelief 62 ministers, 146 
widows and 20 orphans. In the 228 homes of these benefi- 
ciaries are many invalids and 65 little fatherless children 
under 14 years of age. In 1913 we gave to the support of 
all these claimants of the bounty of the Church, $38,725. 

When a minister reaches the age of seventy and has served 
the Church for thirty years, he is entitled to be i^laced on 
the "Roll of Honorably Retired Ministers." There are now 
twenty-eight ministers so enrolled, who received an average 
last year of $270; the largest amount appropriated to any 
one being $600. The average amount paid the other thirty- 
four ministers whose names were not on that Roll was $215. 
The average amount received by the widows was $150. The 
average assistance given to each of the 228 ]iomes represented 
by beneficiaries was $170 per annum. 

Plans for Mixisterial Relief 

We are relieved from the difficulties faced by many Church 
Boards wliich have several agencies trying to solve the same 
proljlem. All funds for disabled ministers and their families 
are handled by this one agency, "The Executive Committee 
of Ministerial Relief," which has adopted the following plans 
for increasing the amounts to be provided for the beneficiaries. 

1. The Assembly's Budget. When the Church adopted 
the every-member canvass plan and apportioned amounts to 
the various synods and presbyteries for the general work of the 
Church, fourteen per cent of the offerings were assigned to 
Christian Education and Ministerial Relief. The amount 
asked for the work for 1915 is, therefore, $172,666. Inas- 
much as great efforts are being made to push this financial 
plan, there is every reason to believe that we w411 receive for 
this work a much larger amount than that contributed last 
year. About two tliirds of this amount ($100,000 to $120,- 
000) will go to the department of Ministerial Relief. 

2. AxxuAL CoLLECTioxs. The months of April and De- 
cembej have been set apart by the General Assembly for 
instruction as to this work and as the time for offerings to 



I 



SOUTHERN PRESBYTEEIAN CHUECH 179 

it. We are carefully informing the churches of the needs 
through the pastors, getting the people more interested in 
the work by means of carefully prepared leaflets, and are 
seeking to secure offerings in those churches that have not 
yet fully adopted the financial plan of the every-member 
canvass. 

3. WoMEN^s Societies. The General Assembly has urged 
all the women's societies, including the Pastor's Aid and the 
Missionary Societies, to interest themselves in all the work 
of the Church. They have been requested to give fourteen 
per cent of their contributions to the work of Christian Edu- 
cation and Ministerial Relief. This gives us access to one of 
the most important agencies of the entire Church. The women 
are studying the matter, using carefully prepared programs, 
prepared by our committee and their own auxiliary, and arc 
not only giving far in excess of their former offerings, but 
are doing much to interest the whole Church in the work. 

4. The Sunday Schools. Owing to the fact that the month 
of December has been assigned to our work, we have the priv- 
ilege of preparing the Christmas exercise for use in the Sun- 
day schools. The tender but sane appeal of this sacred cause 
is presented in attractive exercises which call forth the sym- 
pathy and help of the officers, teachers and pupils of the 
Sunday schools. Inasmuch as the pupils are soon to take 
their places as the leaders in the Church and are to become 
the financiers of the country, we consider this one of the most 
helpful and hopeful parts of our entire campaign for the 
enfeebled veterans of the Church. 

5. Publicity Campaigi^. Some time ago the Church de- 
cided to consolidate the magazines published in the interest 
of foreign missions and home missions and to combine them 
into a magazine which Avould represent the four great agencies 
of the Church. Through the columns of this magazine we have 
the privilege of making known to the women's societies the 
best forms of programs and keeping constantly before the 
Church and our people the needs of our beneficiaries and the 
sacred claims of tliis work. In addition to this all tlie Church 
papers of the South open their columns for brief articles, 
attractively prepared, by which means we are able to reach 
thousands of our people with the latest information and the 
most attractive appeals. 



180 THE EETIRED MINISTER 

6. Future Plaxs. By direction of the General Assembly 
we are now entering upon a vigorous campaign to increase 
the Endowment Fund to at least $500,000. In addition to 
this we have been directed to put forth every effort to increase 
the annual oJEferings to this cause. While the Church has 
never adopted the idea of '^pensions" for her ministers, she 
has definitely assumed the task of caring for the disabled 
ministers, and the needy widows and orphans. Every dictate 
of justice, honor, gratitude, self-respect, expediency, sym- 
pathy, religion, obedience to tlie great Head of the Church, 
love to Christ and the example of Jesus enforce this demand 
— that those who minister in spiritual things shall not be 
allowed to suffer and render inefficient their ministry on 
account of lack of material support. The Church has at last 
awakened to the fact, that regardless of salaries paid, there 
will still be needs, definite and certain, in many ministers' 
homes, and she is now endeavoring through the Endow- 
ment Fund to render less uncertain the means of support for 
the unfortunate ones. 

We do not propose to make the interest from invested funds 
the sole means of meeting this obligation. We want the people 
to have the joy of taking upon themselves 'HJie fellowship of 
ministering to the saints," and to feel the duty of supporting 
the ministers of the Church, whether active or retired, by 
their loving gifts. Trusting in the great God of Elijah and 
the sense of justice in the hearts of our people, we are plan- 
ning better and nobler things for them. 

MiXISTERIAL EeLIEF AXD THE MiXISTERIAL SUPPLY 

Since our work concerns also the recruiting of the Min- 
istry, we have made careful study of the reasons why the 
Church is not furnishing a sufficient supply of capable leaders 
for the ever- widening work of the Church, both at home and 
abroad. I do not believe that many young men are kept out 
of the Ministry because of the hardships they must encounter, 
and the lack of provision for the days of need, though this 
may serve to turn some of our boys aside. If the Church per- 
mits her faithful leaders to lie wounded and uncared for on 
the field of battle, or to struggle along unaided after they have 
been retired from labor and from income, can she rightfully 



SOUTHEEN PEESBYTEEIAN CHUECH 181 

expect the son to rush forward to take the place of the father 
in the depleted ranks of the ministry? 

Most of the bo3^s at the time of decision know little of these 
sad trials, but God knows them every one. May it not be that 
because the Church has shown so little appreciation of the 
faithful ministers He has called to her service that God for 
a time is withholding these priceless gifts! I long to live 
to see the day when these wrongs shall be righted, and to have 
some part in bringing fuller justice to our ministers and 
richer blessing to the Church. 

We thank you, our warm-hearted brethren of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, for the determination and vim with which 
you have attacked this problem. There is urgency in the 
call to go forward. Many of those whose cause we plead will 
be with us but a very short time. Their gray hairs and bended 
forms betoken tlicy are much further from the bounds of 
infancy, than from the gates of death. With wasted forms 
and feeble strength they can only sit and wait the summons 
that will soon come to call them into His presence. What 
we do for them must he done in this generation, nay, must be 
done 710 w. What a joy to labor for these lonely men, and to 
remember that as we seek to minister to them we are minister- 
ing unto Him. 

"Yes, we believe Thy Word, 

Though dim our faitli may be, 
Whate'er we do for Thine, Lord, 
We do it unto Thee." 

Louisville, Ky. Henry H. Sweets. 

A SUNSET SONG 
The Rev. E. Stuart Best, D.D. 

The eightieth milestone's close at hand. 

The pearly gates I see, 
I hear the harps of an angel band, 

They sing sweet songs to me. 
"No more the dreary desert roam. 
Thy Saviour comes to lead thee liome." 

I'm willing, Lord, to labor here. 

Keep toiling till the sun goes down, 
'Midst cherished friends and loved ones dear^ 

'Tis joy to gain a fadeless crown. 
Then, Saviour, when the prize is won. 
Oh, let me hear Thee say, "Well done!" 



182 THE EETlRED MINISTER 

VETERANS OF THE WORLD'S GREATEST ARMY 

Tile Atlaxt.v Coxstitiitiox 

It is the i)i'ac'tieo the world over to provide liberally for 
the old age or the indigence or the disability of the men who, 
in large and little wars, have freely periled life and health in 
the service of their country. We are just beginning to awake 
to the infinitely more sacred obligation we owe the worn or 
crippled veterans of religion ; the men who in the service of the 
Cross sacrifice health, comfort and convenience, not for an 
inspiring four years, but for the entire term of their mature 
activities. 

The cause is one which should appeal to the most generous 
instincts of men and women of every denomination, as well as 
those whose reverence for religion is of a non-sectarian char- 
acter, for these men are, as a matter of plain fact, veterans 
in the greatest army of the world. 

They enter most intimately and personally into the sanctity 
of our homes, in the hours when joy rings its highest cadence 
or when grief shadows the fireside like an impenetrable pall. 
The physician safeguards the material health, saving our 
strength that we may expend it for the sake of those for 
whom self-sacrifice is a luxury, and we are likely to compen- 
sate him in liberal measure. The minister of the soul, who 
gives consolation when the office of the physician has become 
of no avail, and who stands unmoved by our side if despair or 
disgrace should drive thence our dearest companions, too often 
is dismissed with a miserable pittance. It too frequently 
happens that he is so inadequately paid that he must deprive 
his family of the necessities and advantages of life, and he 
is as likely as not to reach the age for retirement without a 
penny against the inevitable rainy day. 

Happily, we are rousing to the inadvertent cruelty and 
injustice of this custom, and denominations throughout ciyil- 
ization are taking steps to repair their neglect of the past and 
forestall its perpetuation in the future. 




THE CHURCH'S 
PROGRAM 

THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL 
CHURCH, SOUTH 



THE REV. J. R. STEWART, D.D. 

Secretary Superannuate Endowment Fund 



For many years past, in the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South, references to the meager support of Conference Claim- 
ants have been punctuated with regretful remarks and apolo- 
getic hesitation. This paper is a candid attempt to set forth 
our successes and failures in the management of this im- 
portant matter. The interesting and contradictory nature of 
existing facts eludes satisfactory analysis. Free and frequent 
expressions of sincere deprecation of this state of affairs are 
heard within and even beyond our Church circles. Incon- 
sistency or indifference might be suggested as applying to 
those who feel so deeply and yet act so tardily; but such 
judgment may properly be suspended until the real situation 
is carefully reviewed. Our belief is strong that if our Meth- 
odist constituency could be furnished with full information, 
forcefully presented, concerning the prevailing and often 
distressing needs of Conference Claimants, the solution of our 
problem would soon be in sight. 

Darkness begets indifference. Ignorance concerning the 
merits of any good cause is its worst enemy. Sympathy 
would be moved and interest stirred into activity if the light 
of intelligence were flashed upon the situation. The real 
conviction of the Church has not been practically expressed 
on this subject, nor its strength delivered. With us, the 
desultory and haphazard manner of handling this great in- 
terest has been its defeat. Strange to say, even the popularity 
of the Claimants' Fund has exposed it to neglect and abuse. 
We have relied entirely too much upon a general and some- 
what vague impression that our Retired Ministers, widows 
and children, so much honored and beloved and so worthy 

183 



184 THE RETIEED MINISTER 

of a competency, are as a matter of course provided for ; that 
the Conference Claimants' Fund is the easiest of all to secure, 
that it will surely he paid, and that in any event, the good 
people will not allow the Claimants to be in want. Xot only 
have authorized agents relied upon the popularity of the 
cause to secure the payment of these claims, often without 
adequate presentation, but they have made the popularity of 
the cause the basis of appeals to secure the payment of other 
connedional claims. Our Claimants have not had a "square 
deal" at the hands of their friends. 

Annual Conference Agencies 

Until within very recent years the Annual Conferences 
have been solely responsible for the support of their Claim- 
ants. That the Conferences have never been al)le, for some 
reason not clearly apj^arent, fully to discharge this responsi- 
bility, by current collections, is a depressing fact of common 
knowledge. Tin's is indicated by numerous organizations 
consisting of aid societies, endowment funds, superannuate 
homes, and lastly, our Superannuate Endowment Fund, all of 
which are intended to be supplementary to the regular line 
of support. These are so many confessions of the inability 
of the Annual Conferences to discharge this responsibility. 
It should l)e stated, however, in the interest of fairness, that 
a small numl^er of our Conferences have gone far in advance 
of others in the suj^port of their Claimants, but the number 
of those which have been successful is very small, not exceed- 
ing a half dozen. The maximum sum paid in these Confer- 
ences does not exceed five hundred dollars, and there are com- 
paratively few who receive as much as four hundred dollars 
per annum. The true situation, however, is better realized 
when we strike an average of the amount paid the represen- 
tative of each superannuate family; which, counting all that 
is received from every source, has not yet reached one hun- 
dred and fifty dollars, and quite a numl)er of our superan- 
nuates decline to receive anything in deference to the interests 
of others, because of their greater need. 

Our Annual Conference organization charged with the duty 
of making provision for Claimants is the Joint Board of 
Finance, composed of an equal number of ministers and lay- 
men. This Board fixes assessments, subject to ratification 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SOUTH 185 

by the Conference. Preachers in attendance on the Board 
meetings are almost invariably in the majority, so that the 
actual responsibility has rested largely on them. The ques- 
tion then arises, Why have not the clerical members, being in 
the majority, provided adequately for the maintenance of 
those who naturally hold such a warm place in their sympa- 
thetic esteem ? Is it a matter of undue modesty ? Can it be due 
to lack of business earnestness and foresight ? Have they felt 
their responsibility duly? It is evident and must be con- 
fessed that our preachers have not used, to the full extent, the 
opportunity they possess for providing the needed support. 
Their unselfishness and modesty may be admired even though 
their business methods be subject to criticism. The shortest 
and easiest way to reach the goal of long-cherished desire 
is through ample assessments for the annual collections, so 
presented that the people may see their responsibility and 
opportunity. It is our conviction that if this had been done, 
our great problem would have received satisfactory solution 
long ago. But we are now under necessity of providing the 
support largely by indirection, since we have failed to do it 
by direct methods. 

Endowment Funds 

ThrovTgh indirect agencies and organizations considerable 
sums have been contributed to the general cause. There are 
twelve or fifteen Annual Conferences which have established 
interest bearing funds, the largest of these scarcely exceeding 
one hundred thousand dollars. The income from these funds 
has been a valuable aid. There are also a few preachers' aid 
societies, which exist for a similar purpose. Then, in addi- 
tion, there has Ijeen developed within the past fifteen years, 
in some dozen or more Conferences, the Superannuate Home 
movement. The pioneer in this form of activity has suc- 
ceeded in securing more than thirty of these homes and has 
attained the largest success in this form of enterprise. 

But the most ambitious attempt was the launching of our 
Superannuate Endowment Fund, with the avowed purpose 
of raising a minimum sum of five million dollars. As far 
as we are advised, the agitation of this matter was begun 
very properly by prominent laymen, the leader being the late 
Mr. W. F. Yandiver of Alabama. Discussion of this subject 



186 THE EETIRED MINISTER 

was held in private circles at the General Conference of 1898, 
but nothing further was done. In 1902, in the Episcopal 
Address, written by Bishop Hendrix, which contained strong 
and definite recommendations on the subject, our Bishops 
expressed their desire for such a movement. Great interest 
was manifested in the committee when the plan of organiza- 
tion was formulated, and its recommendations were adopted 
by the General Conference without opposition and on a full 
tide of enthusiasm. Immediately there was a spontaneous 
subscription of ten or twelve thousand dollars. 

The Board of Trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South, a corporation already existing, was made custodian 
of the fund under certain general directions. A field agent 
was employed who spent two years in visiting Annual Con- 
ferences and churches, soliciting subscriptions. He met with 
encouraging success, and then tendered his resignation, believ- 
ing that his special line of work was completed. Knowing 
the great loss that is incident to the collection of popular 
subscriptions and realizing the fact that a better business 
foundation should be laid for the accumulation of a great 
fund, the trustees began seriously to consider the modification 
of plans. By this time they realized that the accumulation 
of a large fund would require the faithful operation of wise 
and well matured methods for a period of years. At the be- 
ginning, some Avith vivid imagination could see the great fund 
leaping into form and fact in an incredibly short time. 
Others were altogether doubtful of final success. Still others 
looked with large hope to the munificent benefactions of 
wealthy members of the Church for the building of this 
endowment. A yet larger number believed that the difficulties 
of the task would certainly yield, sooner or later, to persis- 
tent effort and that the noble undertaking would be crowned 
with success. 

Direct Contributions from the Churches 

Preparation for inflowing beneficence through the regular 
channels of the Church was not overlooked. Provision 
is made for receiving aid from the membership at large by 
requiring every pastor to present the subject annually to each 
congregation and to receive voluntary contributions. It is 
evident that the founders of the fund regarded this source 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SOUTH 187 

of growth with large expectation, but we are sorry to be com- 
pelled to state tliat the failure of the pastors to take these 
offerings was a sore disappointment. Easy as it may be to 
confess the shortcomings of others, it really requires some- 
thing of an effort to state the plain fact, that only a very few 
of our preachers ever attended to the performance of this 
duty. The Board exhausted whatever ingenuity it possessed 
to induce them to do so, but with incredibly small success. 
They simply would not stand for this method. We again 
came up against that subtle, indefinal)le, paralyzing influence 
which makes our preachers measurably incompetent to deal 
with this problem. Their finer sensibilities and stalwart, 
independent manliness forestalled them. Their itinerant 
training had been on a different line. They had been schooled 
to self-denial and self-respect, and refused to go before the 
public and practically plead their own cause. Our Board 
became thoroughly convinced that we need not expect them 
to take this collection, though, almost to a man, they were 
deeply interested in the success of the movement, as demon- 
strated by the fact that they were large personal contributors. 

General Conference Assessments 

Realizing that there was a great problem to be solved and 
knowing that the men in the ministry had possession of the 
slate, the Board began devising measures to set them to work. 
Convinced that no connectional enterprise could have large 
success independent of the active agency of the preachers, 
the expedient of an assessment was resorted to. The Board, 
being without power to fix assessments, appealed to Annual 
Conferences to assume them : a line of effort which frequently 
met stern opposition and was sometimes defeated, but finally 
prevailed in nearly all the Conferences. The General Con- 
ference of 1910 was memorialized to give the desired relief 
by authorizing a uniform assessment, but through a conjunc- 
tion of unfortunate circumstances the effort failed. The 
work, however, was continued along former lines with in- 
creasing encouragement throughout the following quadren- 
nium. Three plans for enlargement were presented for the 
consideration of the General Conference of 1914. Two of 
them were quite comprehensive in scope, though widely differ- 
ent; one of them being presented by the Board which is 



188 THE EETIRED MIXISTER 

custodian of the fund. These progressive plans were promptly 
turned down by the committee, but a more conservative 
recommendation of the Board was promptly approved and 
enacted into law. This provision is in part as follows: "To 
further provide for the enlargement of this fund, an assess- 
ment sliall be made on all Annual Conferences of a sum not 
less than one per cent of the amount paid for ministerial 
support."' From this one source the fund should receive not 
less than fifty thousand dollars annually at the beginning 
and the amount should increase with the normal growth of 
the Church. Three fourths of the net income of this is dis- 
bursed annually to claimants through the several Annual 
Conferences, on the basis of the number of claimants, while 
one fourth is retained for increase of the Fund. The dis- 
Imrsement this year approximates nine thousand dollars; and 
Avill increase annually, xlfter the fund shall have been com- 
pleted the entire net income will be available for distribution. 
Some real estate has been deeded to the Board for the fund, 
with retention of life interest by the donor. By this com- 
mendable method one can practically administer on his own 
estate and be better assured that his purpose will be carried 
out after his decease than he could be by making a will. One 
such provision made recently will yield from fifteen to twenty 
thousand dollars. 

Bequests 

Since this fund has been in existence, a number of ])equests 
have been made from which a considerable aggregate has been 
realized. Bequests are provocative of law suits and not infre- 
quently the Church loses. We have one such suit now pend- 
ing in a higher court involving an interest in a large coal 
land estate. AYe are expecting, also, that suit may be brought 
at any time in another case involving fifteen thousand dollars. 
We look with large favor on the purchasing of Life x\nnuity 
Bonds by those who have money they would like to put into 
this sacred cause and need the income from it during life. 
This line of contribution has been given great encouragement 
of late and with gratifying success. Fifty thousand dollars 
have been secured by this means, and our donors seem highly 
pleased with their investment. We expect large increments 
from this source. Our ministers have splendid opportunities, 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHUECH, SOUTH 189 

by cooperation with us along these h'nes, to render large and 
valuable service to the cause which should be dear to them. 

The gathering of a five million dollar fund would be a 
short and easy task for our two million members if everybody 
was busy at the task. Yet that great achievement, as an 
accomplished fact, seems far in the future. A friend who 
was kneeling close beside the preacher who was praying too 
loud whispered, ''DonH pray so loud. The Lord is not deaf." 
Without subduing his tones the man responded : '^1 know the 
Lord is not deaf; but He is a long way off from this place." 
So, we are compelled to admit that the Five Million Dollar 
Fund seems a long way off. But we are pressing on to the 
goal, and as long as we are proceeding there is a prosjDCct of 
arriving. With $325,000 in cash holdings, and about $425,- 
000 in total assets, we realize that our growth has been slow. 
It is not necessary to detail our hindrances, but only sufficient 
to say that these obstacles are fast disappearing. Our fund 
never before had as fair a prospect as at present. During 
the last quadrennium the cash assets almost doubled. We 
have every reason to believe that during the present quadren- 
nium the sum will again be quite duplicated; a faith founded 
upon the legitimate expectancy of growth, as well as on the 
knowledge of other sources from which we are hopeful of 
receiving large additional amounts. 

Justice and Fair Dealing 

We are coming more and more to realize that a comfortable 
support for our claimants inust he provided, by whatever 
honorable means. The justice and fairness of a guarantee 
of life-long sustenance for those who have consecrated them- 
selves to a life-long service of religious leadership is so appar- 
ent that it scarcely needs to be stated. The vast majority of 
the preachers in our Church receive only a meager living, and 
many are pressed financially to the last limit in order to be 
able to continue their labors through the active period of 
their lives. It is impossible out of their small salaries to save 
anything for old age and disability. Honestly construed, life- 
time surrender to a great public life-service means life-time 
support. There are those who tell us that unless our ministry, 
both active and retired, are more comfortably maintained, we 
shall soon be without men to fill our itinerant ranks. AYe are 



190 THE EETIKED MIXISTEK 

not greatly alarmed at this warning, and thank God for that 
spirit in our itinerants which savors not of the things that 
be of men. They are held to their serious calling by conscien- 
tious convictions. They are not hirelings. Like the great 
Japanese Christian, the late Joseph Xeesima, "They have a 
plow on their hands.'' As long as they believe that they are 
called of God to this ministry they will be found faithful, 
regardless of the hardships they may have to endure. With 
all this we realize that some may be deterred from entering 
the ministry, and others diverted to other lines of religious 
activity. 

Gratitude 

The well-informed among us are filled with regret and 
shame as they recall the fact that so many preachers and their 
families are kept on the depressed plane of embarrassing 
poverty. But when they realize the heroism which makes 
such a ministry possible, their sense of shame disappears in 
gratitude to God for the noble men and women "who count 
not their lives dear unto themselves, so that they may finish 
their course with joy, and the ministry which they have 
received of the Lord Jesus." The heavy hand of inadequate 
sujDport falls with crushing weight upon many circuit preach- 
ers in country places and mountain districts. The Church's 
greatest debt of gratitude is due these earnest preachers for 
the splendid service they render in directing the doubtful feet 
of the inex|)erienced to the safe paths of gospel peace. With 
no prospect or opportunity of providing for the proverbial 
"rainy day," these men of faith move quietly and sublimely 
onward "making many rich," yet themselves remaining poor. 
Sooner or later they reach the inevitable day of retirement 
from both service and salary to a mere annual pittance, and 
to a trust in a merciful providence. How unfortunate it is 
when age and want, unseemly yoke-fellows, must be coupled 
together ! 

During the recent session of my Conference I visited the 
rej)uted spot where that young Southern hero, Sam Davis, 
was executed in 1863. He rose to posthumous fame because he 
chose to surrender his life rather than divulge the name of the 
person who had confided to him certain information which 
was found on his person. To the reluctant officers who did 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SOUTH 191 

everything possible Tinder the military restrictions to save 
his life, urging him repeatedly, even when he stood upon the 
death scaffold, to divulge the name of his informant, 
he replied : "Had I a thousand lives I would give them up 
before I would betray the confidence of a friend/' As I looked 
on tlie scene of that tragedy I thought of the honor and 
heroism of that youth whose name will be handed down to 
coming generations. And I thought also, of the noble, self- 
sacrificing men and women in our itinerant ranks, whose 
unheralded names are worthy to be recorded in the heroic 
annals of the ages with those of the great men and women 
of the Eepublic. 

The time is coming when a just and righteous people will 
honor and reward such Christlike service as our itinerant 
preachers are rendering, and will count it a privilege and a 
pleasure to make their old age an evening time of delight. 
The churches have slept long beyond their wakening time, 
but are now putting on their working apparel for an earnest 
and strenuous day's toil, the closing of which shall witness 
that in the future there shall be always an ample competency 
for the weary ministers, the lonely widows and the dependent 
orphans of Methodism. 

Nashville, Tenn. ' J. E. Stewart. 



WORN-OUT PREACHERS 
Bishop 0. P. Fitzgerald 

"Worn-out Preachers" — that is the right Avord. They 
are not tired out; they are not driven out because of any 
wrongdoing; they are not drawn out by any hope of worldly 
gain or ease. The law of the Church says : "^A Superannuated 
Preacher is one who is worn out in the itinerant service.'' I 
recently looked upon the picture of one of them, the face of 
a good man whom I have long known and highly esteemed. 
The face bore the marks of physical pain and of weariness 
under the burdens he was carrying. In its expression I did 
not read discontent or complaint, but a longing for the call 
to go home where the weary rest. This thought came into my 
mind: "If we had before us in one group all our worn-out 
preachers, what a study it would present !" Broken and 
stooped, with wrinkled faces, whitened hair, and eyes that 



192 THE EETIRED MIXISTEE 

are dimmed — some things about them remind us who these 
men are. They are the servants of God who have fought a 
good fight, men who have performed the labor of love, and 
are exercising now the patience of hope. The sight of them 
would recall their lives, their heroism that was unflinching, 
their self-denial that was not merely a rhetorical expression, 
their patience and fortitude, which they practiced themselves 
as they had preached it to others. Tliey are good faces — the 
faces of good men. Some one has said: ^'There are no happy 
old men among the servants of Satan.^' These worn-out 
preachers are happy in God in the midst of their distress and 
under the privations which have fallen to their lot. And their 
wives — mothers in our Israel, holy women who have shared 
their toils, who have kept step with them as their traveling 
companions in their itineracy — the picture would be incom- 
plete vv'ithout them. For the most part their names are 
unknown in the world. They have prayed and toiled and 
ministered with no thought of fame or worldly profit of any 
sort, but the blessings of God have followed their tracks. 
Their names are written in God's book of remembrance with 
those recorded in the Epistle to the Hebrews. 



THE SUPEEANNUATE ENDOWMENT FUND 

Bishop E. E. Hoss 

Let us imitate here the wisdom of the Eoman Catholics, 
who have learned how to wait. They expect to be here next 
year, and lay their plans accordingly. If Methodism is to 
abide, it must do the same thing. The day has passed for mere 
temporary expediencies. AVe must take the ages into account. 

Surely there is no class of men who better deserve to have 
their old age protected from want than the average itinerant 
preacher. Except in rare instances they do not, even in 
their prime, receive more salary than is sufficient to meet the 
current expenses. Many of them fail to fare even that well. 
Only the most rigid economy and self-denial keep them out 
of debt. In nearly every case they come to old age with but 
scant financial resources. Ofttimes they are forced to drop 
out of the ranks homeless and penniless. It is not pretended 
that the collections made in the Annual Conferences furnish 
enough to meet their actual wants. 



I 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SOUTH 193 

This is the thing, as many have bitterly learned, that 
makes the coming of superamiuation such a dreadful thing. 
After a man has been thirty or forty years a Methodist Min- 
ister he is virtually unfitted for any other work. And who 
wants to have an old preacher? What place is there left for 
him in the world? With thousands of eager and efficient 
young men seeking employment, he is simply crowded out. 
To me it is a pitiful spectacle. Once in a while I meet a 
venerable brother who has been a little more fortunate or a 
little more provident than the rest of his comrades and is 
spending a happy and comfortable old age under his own 
vine and fig tree, and I am always happy at such a sight. The 
plea I now make is for those who are, if not down and out, 
at least in great straits. If I were younger, I should like to 
lead a crusade in their behalf. 



THE CHURCH'S OBLIGATION 
Bishop Collins Denny 

We cannot shut our eyes to the fact that we have grown 
to be a great people, amply able to care for those who are 
legitimately dependent upon us. Any lack of appreciation 
on our part for these Veterans is a serious reflection on the 
Church. Long ago we should have devised and pressed some 
wise plan for a better care for these old preachers. Any steps 
that we can now take which will accomplish this result ought 
to be taken witli gladness, indeed, with enthusiasm. We are 
far behind our English brethren in this matter. God has 
greatly blessed us not only in giving us increase of member- 
ship, but also in increasing the resources of our people. Such 
provision as we make for those who have turned away from 
secular pursuits to serve Him cannot but meet His blessing. 



OLD AGE, THE INDIAN SUMMER OF LIFE 

Annual Report^ Methodist Episcopal Church^ South 

God designs ohl age to l)e the Indian summer of life, the 
gentlest, the tenderest, the most beautiful of all life's seasons; 
for he says: "And even to your old age I am he; and even to 
hoary hairs I will carry and will deliver you." God's special 
care and love for old age marks it as the Indian sunnner of 
earth's pilgrimage. 




CiJOvrxED Vetkraxs 
"So Great a Cloud of Witnesses" 




THE CHURCH'S 
PROGRAM 

THE BAPTIST CHURCH 

THE REV. W. B. MATTESON, D.D. 

Secretary Baptist Ministers' Home Society 



I am a convinced Baptist and believe in liberty, democracy 
and independency. I am not, however, alone among Baptists 
in realizing that we pay a great price for our liberty. Per- 
haps we value it the more because we pay so much, but we 
are not blind to the advantages of more centralized methods. 
Democracy, either in political or ecclesiastical affairs, is not 
synonymous with the greatest immediate efficiency, and there- 
fore in recent years our denomination has made a serious 
effort to secure closer cooperation without abating our inde- 
pendency. In 1908, we created the Northern Baptist Con- 
vention as an instrument of common expression and united 
action. The Convention has no authority but — what we think 
is better — great influence. Although at first looked upon with 
much suspicion — Baptists are preternaturally afraid some one 
is going to try to "boss^' them — this organization has already 
led the way to important changes, and increasingly com- 
mands our respect and confidence. 

At no point, perhaps, has our polity worked to greater 
disadvantage than in the problem of ministerial relief. The 
status of a Baptist minister is peculiar. He is ordained by 
the local church, subject to its discipline and to its discipline 
alone. So long as his people are loyal, a Baptist minister 
is a king on his throne, '^his right there is none to dispute"; 
but apart from the local churcli, he is a waif and a stray. He 
hardly belongs to a denomination. Tlie denomination did 
not ordain liim, exercises no real supervision over him, and, 
naturally enough, has felt no great responsibility as to what 
became of him. The chief reason for the laggard's place we 
Baptists occupy in the work of ministerial relief lies in these 

195 



19G THE EETIEED MIXISTER 

cliaracteristics of our polity. Our people are kind and gener- 
ous; they are quickly responsive to any call of real sulfering; 
but in the absence of a common plan or general supervision 
relief has been given in a haphazard way, as a sort of occa- 
sional and incidental chariiy : with little appreciation of the 
real dignity and importance of the cause. 

E APvLY UG AX I Z AT ! OXS 

Th.e first consideraljle organization among us for this work 
was "The Baptist ]\linisters' Home Society/' organized in 1882 
and working in ISTew York, Xew Jersey and Connecticut. A 
few other organizations followed ; but up to a very few years 
ago the situation was chaotic. In addition to the society 
just named, we liad a simihir organization in the central West 
covering five States ; some States had funds : some associations 
had small funds; the Cerman and Danish Baptists did some- 
thing among themselves ; but there were great gaps in between 
where nothino; was boino- done in anv organized wav; and such 
organizations as existed were, for the most part, feeble and 
their work ineffectual. One of the very first things done by 
the newly created Northern Baptist Convention was the ap- 
2:)ointment of a Ministers' and ]\lissionaries' Benefit Board, 
charged with the express duty of overseeing this work, filling 
in the gaps, unifying and harmonizing existing agencies, and 
pushing forward the Avhole work to greater achievement. The 
Board called to its secretaryship Dr. E. T. Tomlinson, and 
in 1911 raised an endowment of $250,000. The Convention in 
June,1914, authorized an additional million. The cause is 
now, for the first time, recognized as one of our great denomi- 
national causes, and is regularly put on the apportionments. 
This new standing has already secured for it wider recogni- 
tion and more generous support. 

^IixiSTEKS^ Holies 

AYe have experimented with institutional methods. Our 
first considerable societ}', "The Baptist ^liiiisters' Home 
Society," as its name suggests, was organized al)out the idea 
of a Home. I have heard it claimed that this was the first 
Home established in this country expressly for old ministers ; 
a doubtful honor. Our next most important society, the one 
in the central AYest, also centered in a Home. Throua'h the 



THE BAPTIST CHURCH 19" 

muniiicence of Mr. George Xugeiit, a magnificent Home with 
generous endowment, was established in Germantown, Pa., 
and a fourth Home has been completed recently in Southern 
California. Altogether they represent a property investment 
of $180,000 and endowments of $315,000. The Home is a 
beautiful and aj)pealing idea, and will always have a real 
place in this work, for cases will occasionally arise that cannot 
otherwise be as well provided for ; but as a method of dealing 
with the real problem of ministerial relief, we soon found it 
inadequate to the point of futility. We have, I imagine, done 
more than any other denomination in the way of such Homes, 
and less for our old ministers ! Over-emphasis on Homes has 
tended to blind us to the real problem, and has delayed our 
recognition of the actual conditions. 

Relief Plaxs 

Our principal method has been that of relief. The societies 
which were originally centered in Homes soon undertook out- 
side relief; the New York society practically abandoned its 
Home; the Michigan society does much more outside than 
inside. Most of the State and associational funds were never 
otherwise used. Our aim has not gone beyond that of pre- 
venting or relieving actual suffering. The usual way has 
been to grant a monthly allowance, of from ten to twenty-five 
dollars per month, conditioned on a minimum of honorable 
service, but otherwise solely determined by the needs of the 
particular case. We have pensioned old ministers and given 
allowances to those who were disabled, and to the widows and 
orphans of those wlio died. This method is the most economi- 
cal and adaptable of all. It has worked fairly well, and we 
have never turned a deaf ear to anyone in real distress. The 
chief difficulty has been that our ministers often object to it 
as savoring of alms, and so being humiliating and pauperiz- 
ing. The old minister who wrote me that "he had rather 
die than accept our help,'^ spoke for many. There has thus 
grown up among us a strong demand for some method less 
olfensive to the self-resj^ect, and many ministers have ex- 
pressed a desire for a contributory plan, by which they could 
be helped to help themselves. So our Iknefit Board in 191tL 
at the June meeting of the Northern Baptist Convention, 
broiiglit forward a "Proposed IMan for the Pensioning of 



198 THE EETIEED MIXISTER 

Bai^tist Ministers," substantially identical with that which is 
being" put into operation by the C'ongregationalists; and very 
similar to that which was inaugurated six years since by the 
Presbyterians. Though called a '^pension" plan, it would be 
more accurately described as an insurance plan. Ministers 
are to pay annual premiums, scaled to age, suihcient to earn 
annuities of one hundred dollars by the time they are sixty- 
five years old, and the Church proposes to increase this 
annuity to a maximum of five hundred dollars, as soon as it 
can secure the necessary funds. Lesser benefits are offered 
to disabled men ; and still less to widows and orphans. The 
advantages of the plan are obvious. The ministers do their 
fair part, and this in itself constitutes a strong appeal to the 
Church to do its fair j^art. The relation is strictly con- 
tractual ; the Church agrees to do a certain thing upon con- 
dition that the minister does a certain other thing. No 
humiliating questions need be asked. Xeed has nothing to 
do with it. Those who go in purchase insurance at eighty per 
cent discount. Aside from the fact that the plan would not 
be safe and workable without large endowments the disturb- 
ing doubt with us is as to the possibility of enlisting our 
ministers generally in support of such a plan. All experience 
seems to be against the success of contributory plans, when the 
contribution is voluntary, and there is no way of exercising 
compulsion. Mr. Lewis, in his work on "State Insurance" 
says, "It is generally agreed that plans for old age relief 
which are purely optional fall far short of reaching the evils 
which they seek to alleviate." The failure does not lie in any 
lack of ])enefit for those who go in; but in the fact that so 
many, and those generally the men on the smaller income, 
who most need protection, feel unable to pay the premiums, 
and so do not go in. Such experience as we have had confirms 
our fears. Contributory plans tried by German Baptists and 
in some southern States have failed of any great success. 

In Massachusetts we have some approach to a truly pension 
system, chiefly through the generosity of Mr. Ford, of Youth's 
Companion fame, who bequeathed nearly $200,000 to the 
State Ministers' Conference. It is proposed to pay to every 
Bai^tist minister, who has given at least ten years of honorable 
service in that State and who has reached the age of sixty- 
two, a pension of $.20 for each year of service up to twenty- 



THE BAPTIST CIIUHCH 199 

five years, with a maximum of $500. At present the allowance 
is $15 per year, a maximum of $375. Nineteen men are now 
thus pensioned in amounts ranging from $155 to $375. 
The Conference recognizes, however, that brethren in need 
have a first claim upon the funds, and twenty- two were so 
helped last year. Until the fund has been increased to at 
least a half million dollars they will be unable fully to carry 
out their purpose. 

Summary 

Our work is being done through so many different and un- 
related organizations, and with so much diversity of method, 
that it is very difficult to summarize the results. So far as 
I have been able to ascertain, the Baptists of the North have 
property dedicated to this cause valued at $170,000 and en- 
dowments amounting to $1,270,000. Last year they cared in 
all for 404 beneficiaries (800 if all members of the families 
helped are included), and expended $88,567. The Baptists 
of the South have $170,000 in endowment, and expended last 
year $41,418 for 416 beneficiaries. Taken all together we 
Baptists have in property and endowment $1,612,000, and 
cared last year for 820 persons, at an expense of $132,986. 
Our Baptist experience is peculiarly conditioned; but, for 
that reason has its contribution to make to the problem. 

1. Small Salaries. We find that the underlying condi- 
tion of dependency is inadequate salaries. Tlie chief reason 
why ministers or their families become dependent is simply 
that salaries are commonly so small that few ministers are 
able to provide against ^'the rainy day," or to save enough to 
be independent in their old age. We cannot hope, therefore, 
to finally solve the problem of relief, until we have in some 
way secured, especially for the smaller salaried men, a sub- 
stantial increase of income. We have, unfortunately, no real 
statistics of our own respecting salaries, but according to the 
United States Census Bulletin, we rank fourth among the 
greater denominations; below the Episcopalians, Presby- 
terians, Congregationalists and just above the Methodists; 
paying an average salary of $833, or, outside of the large 
cities, $683. But, as these statistics are based on reports from 
only sixty per cent of our churches, and it is the smaller 
churches that have generally failed to report, the figures 



200 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

given are jDrobably coiisideral)ly above the mark. I be- 
lieve it to be a very generous estimate to say that one Bap- 
tist minister in ten has over $1,000 ; three in ten OA^er $750, 
and that much more than lialf receive less than $600. Of 
the service actually rendered by the beneficiaries of the Bap- 
tist Ministers' Home Society in New York State over a period 
of thirty-two years, sixty-three per cent was in churches which 
raised for all home purposes last year less than $1,000. The 
great majority of our beneficiaries are men who never had 
a salary of over $600 per year. They did not save because 
they could not save. 

2. ^IisFORTUXKs. But, although small salaries condition 
our problem, they are not the active causes of dependency. 
Over seventy per cent of all dependency is due to misfortune, 
sickness, unemployment and permanent disability; not so 
much to old age as to the infirmities of old age; and for the 
family, to the death of the wage earner. The average annual 
cost of sickness in the United States is estimated at $100 per 
family, and ministers do not escape their share. Some start- 
ling statistics in the last Presbyterian report show that the 
loss in that denomination through unemployment would 
amount to a reduction of over $300 (or more than twenty-five 
per cent) in the average salary. Both these risks, sickness and 
unemployment, would be included in any complete plan of 
protection. They are not included in any plan we know, 
chiefly because of their cost. Not to include them is not to 
eliminate the cost, but simply to refuse to distribute is to let 
it lie where it falls; and, where it does fall, it seriously affects 
the possilnlity of saving. A year without employment would 
be a nearly fatal blow economically to many of our ministers; 
and in actual practice, men so affected among us are likely 
to leave the ministry entirely, which is the solution of de- 
spair! Though we have only very incidentally and in- 
directly dealt with these risks, we have sought to jDrotect our 
ministers and their families against the major misfortunes 
of eomj^lete disability, old age and death. The minister who 
says, "What we need is not pensions but larger salaries" is 
right in his affirmation. But he is entirely wrong in his im- 
plication that, if salaries were increased, the need for pen- 
sions would disapj^ear. Let salaries be increased beyond any 
reasonable hope, and the five great misfortunes, with others 



THE BAPTIST CHIJKCII 201 

of less virulence, still lie in wait to devour his hopes. With 
a larger salary the minister could a little better protect him- 
self, the proportions of the problem would be somewhat re- 
duced, but protection would still be greatly needed. Men 
being what they are and life what it is, no increase in salary 
will eliminate nor even greatly reduce the need of relief. 

3. The Eueal Problem. Our Baptist problem is, in a large 
measure, a problem of the rural church. We, like Methodism, 
are a country Church, and our strength is in the towns, villages 
and rural districts. Seventy-three and four tenths per cent of 
our total population dwell outside of large cities; but eight}- 
six per cent of the Methodists and eighty-eight per cent of t]ie 
Baptists dwell there. In New York State twenty-one per cent 
of the population live in communities of less than 2,500 in- 
habitants; but this twenty-one per cent supports sixty-four 
per cent of our Baptist churches. When the rural church de- 
clines, we die at the roots, and we know how serious the situ- 
ation is to-day in the country churches. All agree that the 
only possible solution is to put trained and efficient men on 
these fields. But to find such men and keep them there is the 
great difficulty. This is a matter of providing decent main- 
tenaiice. Conditions of ministerial life in the country have 
greatly changed and all for the worse. Among us, at least, 
salaries are nominally less than they were thirty or forty years 
ago. In actual purchasing power, when everything is taken 
into consideration, the country minister's income has declined 
nearly half. The pastor of the small church in the small 
village, on a small salary, is the crux of our situation. The 
point here at issue is of great importance to our ministers; 
l)ut it is vastly more important to our Church. We shall 
stand or fall with the rural church. We must stand by tlie 
country pastor. 

4. Disability and Widowhood. A careful study of tbe 
records of the Baptist Ministers' Home Society, during a 
period of thirty- two years, shows that we have helped more 
ministers than widows and orphans. This is, I believe, con- 
trary to the usual experience. It is contrary to our own in 
later years. But even with this unusual preponderance of 
ministers the chief cause of dependency, in the experience 
of this society, has not been ministerial old age : forty-four ])or 
cent has been due to the death of the wage earner ; forty per 



202 THE RETIRED MIXISTER 

cent to ministerial old age; nine per cent to permanent dis- 
ability; seven per cent to various causes, of which prolonged 
sickness and lack of employment are chief. Without attaching 
undue importance to figures based on so limited an experience, 
the fact, confirmed by all that I have been al)le to learn of the 
experience of otlier similar organizations, seems to be that the 
greatest need is not pensions for old age but protection against 
disability and widowhood. The common practice of giving 
a lesser benefit to the widow than to the disabled minister is 
based neither on justice nor correspondence with the real 
need. To minimize this phase of our work in order to em- 
phasize old age benefits is to lose touch with the facts ; to 
stress the lesser and remoter need at the expense of that which 
is both greater and nearer. It is also to weaken greatly the 
strength of our appeal to the ministers themselves. We are 
all invincible optimists as regards the risks of life. Others 
may be hit; we expect somehow to escaj^e. Especially is a 
young man likely to be optimistic as regards the risk of a 
dependent old age; old age is so far away, and dependency 
is to vigorous youth so utterly unthinkable ! So many things 
may happen before that ! He may die ; half of us do ; and a 
considerai)le part of the other half drop out. The average 
age of those who have entered the Presbyterian pension plan 
is stated to be 48. Present protection makes a much 
stronger appeal than future i^ensioning and is more needed. 
5. Our Obligatiox to care for our ministers is more than 
sentimental. It is primarily a matter of ol)edience to the 
first Christian injunction, to love one another and to care 
for the brother in need; an obligation of peculiar emphasis 
when the "brother" concerned is one who has devoted his life 
to the service of the Church. We shall never get beyond this 
obligation of love, nor do we wish so to do. But, the first 
implication of love is justice. Love should go far beyond 
justice, but it is less than love, until it has attained to justice. 
And we are beginning to see that we have no right to take the 
lives of men, consume their strength and devour their years, 
and then, when we have squeezed the last drop of vitality out 
of them, cast them out upon the rubbish heap and forget that 
they ever were ! If we fail to recognize this, we are in the 
way of being sharply reminded. The underlying principle 
of all modern social insurance — a movement with a long 



THE BAPTIST CHUECH 203 

history abroad, but now just beginning to be felt in America 
— is that every industry must care for its own waste, the 
waste of men as well as the waste of material. If that princi- 
ple ever becomes established in this country — and it certainly 
will — the recently adopted workingmen's compensation laws 
pointing that way, the time will come when Society will say 
to the Church, "We refuse longer to permit you to cast upon 
us the burden of caring for your broken men. You shall have 
no ministry, unless you undertake to care completely for your 
ministry." Such a demand would be as just, as it would be 
humiliating. Love, justice, self-respect and an awakening 
sense of social obligation demand that we care for our own. 
6. The Young Minister. The real aim of all our plans 
is not, when all is said, to help the old minister, but the 
young; the ultimate beneficiary indeed is not the minister at 
all but the Church. Our problem is a part of the great prob- 
lem of securing a proper maintenance for our ministry, and 
that is the greatest of all our problems, underlying all others, 
involving, as it does, the efficiency of both the Church's pres- 
ent and future leadership. It is as hopeless as it is cruel to 
expect efficient service on beggarly wages. The minister's 
wife who recently told me : "My husband could preach better 
sermons if he did not have to worry so about those coal bills," 
spoke a parable of wide application. We do not ask the 
Church to make our ministers rich ; we prefer them poor ; but, 
there is a point of income, widely variable in particular cases, 
below which the minister, cankered with care, burdened with 
material anxieties, ground down by poverty, unable to travel 
or buy books or otherwise keep himself at his best, begins 
to lose efficiency. Oppressed with present anxieties, he is 
gripped with fear for his future. What would become of his 
family if he were to die to-morrow? What would become 
of himself or of them if he were to be permanently incapaci- 
tated or to live on beyond the years when the churches would 
accept his services? We, who are laboring at this problem 
of protection, do not directly deal with the salary problem; 
but we do touch it, and that at its sorest point. Our aim is 
to persuade our people to say to the minister in active service 
to-day, "(Uve yourself whole-heartedly to the work; spend 
yourself freely ; be not afraid ; we do not pay you such salaries 
as we sliould, but this at least we do solemnly promise, ^We 



204 THE EETIRED MIXISTER 

will stand back of you; if you fall in the work we will care 
for you; if you die, we will not permit your family to suffer; 
if you grow old in it, we will comfort your dcelinin;]: 
years/ " If we could but so say that as to carry conviction to 
tlie men on the hard fields and the small salaries, we should 
put new heart and hope into them ; we should vastl}^ increase 
their efficiency ; and the Church would be the real beneficiary. 

7. "Called, Ciiosex, Faith ftl." I am now in the fourth 
year of service in this cause, and am glad to confess that the 
greatest thing these years have brought me is a new appre- 
ciation of our ministers. Many of them are not great men, 
l)ut the most of them are good men, faithful and hard work- 
ing. I think often of this incident. A London preacher 
went down to a little country hamlet to dedicate a tablet 
placed in the chapel in memory of a recently deceased pastor, 
who for many years had labored, unnoted and unsung, in an 
obscure country village. Arriving early, the London preacher 
entered the little building and stood l)cfore the tal)let. L'pon 
it were inscril)ed the name of the pastor, the date of his birth, 
the date of his death and only these further words : ''Called, 
Chosen, Faithful.^' As he stood pondering the inscription an 
old man and his wife came and stood beside him silently look- 
ing. After a little, the old man said with treml)ling lips, 
"\Xe all loved him, and our lives are better because he lived 
among us !" AVho of us would not be proud, indeed, if we 
were secure of such an epitaph — "Called, Chosen, Faithful," 
with the commentary in the hearts of our people, "We all 
loved him, and our lives are better because he lived among 
us" ? I do not simpl}' believe, I know, tliat many such men 
are numbered among our pastors. They live in small places ; 
the world little notes them ; the Church bestows uj)on them 
no honors; they bear hardships as good soldiers of Jesus 
Christ; they know poverty and want and the lack of all 
things; but they have been Called and Chosen and they are 
Faithful. Their people love them and are indeed better for 
their having lived among them. "I honored a faithful min- 
ister in my heart," said Governor John Winthrop, "and could 
have kissed his feet." The words are no longer extravagant. 
To help such men is our high privilege: we could ask no more 
joyful service. 

Mt. Yernon, N. Y. W. B. Matteson". 




THE CHURCH'S 
PROGRAM 

RELIEF IN CONGEEGATIONAL 
CHURCHES 

THE REV. WILLIAM A. RICE, D.D. 

Corresponding Secretarj' Congregational Board of 

Ministerial Relief and Annuity Fund for 

Congregational Ministers 



It was not until 1886 that the national movement for the 
care of aged ministers was inangurated by the National 
Council of The Congregational Churches of the United States. 
Prior to that time several State organizations for Ministerial 
Relief had been making a very small and inadequate provision 
for widows and Ministers. Before the division of the Con- 
gregational Church into the Unitarian and Orthodox branches 
a considerable fund had been gathered in Massachusetts, 
exclusively for widows of ministers. This fund, amounting 
to about $160,000, is still intact and is administered by a 
joint Board of the two Churches for the benefit of both 
denominations. There are fourteen State Relief Societies of 
which the oldest, New Hampshire, will celebrate its one hun- 
dredth anniversary in 1915. Several State Societies have 
merged with the National Society. The fourteen State Soci- 
eties now hold permanent endowment funds of ncmrly $100,- 
000 and annually distribute about $35,000 to over 200 fam- 
ilies. 

The National Board 

The National Board, now in its 28th year, has gathered an 
Endowment Fund of about $300,000 and annually receives 
from all sources an average of $50,000. It has more than 
200 families on its roll and gives to them over $30,000 a year. 

These com])ined forces represent endowments of about 
$700,000 and annual receipts, including interest and gifts 
for endowment, of about $85,000. They distribute al)()ut 
$65,000 to over 400 families, representing approximately 700 
dependent ministers and their wives, widows and orphans. 

In addition to the work of these Boards of Relief tlie Na- 
tional Council at its meeting in Kansas City in October, 1913, 
adopted a general plan for ^linisterial Annuities, and com- 

205 



206 THE EETIRED MINISTER 

mitted the inauguration, perfecting and promotion of the 
plan to the Board of Eelief which has secured a separate 
charter for this work, known as 

The Annuity Fund for Congregational Ministers 

The object of this endeavor is to provide at tlie age of 
sixt3^-five or seventy an annuity of five hundred dollars for 
the remainder of the minister's life, or three fifths of this 
sum for his widow. There is also a disability annuity in case 
the minister is totally disabled before reaching the annuity 
age; also a provision for the minor children until they become 
of age. The annuity" provision applies only to those Congre- 
gational ministers, who became members of the Fund by mak- 
ing annual payments of jDremiums which according to actu- 
arial estimates will yield one fifth of the amount of the old age 
pension or its prior provisions. That is, the minister pur- 
chases one fifth and the churches undertake to purchase four 
fifths; or for every dollar the minister puts into the Fund, 
the churches are to be asked to put in four dollars. The pro- 
visions of the Annuity Fund are applicable mainly to the 
younger ministers. The rates are very reasonable for the men 
who are under forty, though they are available for men older, 
up to fifty-five and even more. 

The Annuity Fund has just been inaugurated and there- 
fore has not had time for growth. Xo statistics can be given. 
It promises, however, to be one of the greatest achievements 
of the denomination. 

In the Congregational churches there are some 6,000 min- 
isters. The average salary is probably about $800. This 
means that there are many who receive much less. There are 
over 1,300 churches which pay salaries of not over $500. 
It is absolutely necessary, therefore, for the churches as a 
whole to make more adequate provision for the periods of old 
age, infirmity, sickness and incapacity. Our churches are 
awakening to this responsibility as never before and are en- 
deavoring to accomplish this end through their Boards of 
Eelief and the Annuity Fund. 

William A. Rice. 

New York. 




THE CHURCH'S 
PROGRAM 

THE CONGREGATIONAL 
CHURCH 

THE REV. SAMUEL L. LOOMIS, D.D. 

Trustee Annuity Fund for Congregational 
Ministers 



We Are Proud of Our Kindred. The Congregational body 
is sometimes spoken of as one of the oldest branches of the 
Church of Christ in America, and looks back with what we 
hope may be considered a pardonable pride upon our spiritual 
ancestry. She may be, perhaps, a bit over-conscious that, 

"Still she keeps the ancient stock 
And stubborn strength of Pilgrim Pock," 

yet I assure you that she takes much greater pride and satis- 
faction in contemporary kindred than in remote ancestry; 
and in no member of the family does she have greater joy 
than in the vigorous, abounding life, astonishing progress 
and mighty achievement of her younger sister, The Methodist 
Episcopal Church. 

We Are Eich in Hope. Beware, little sister, that you 
do not think of us as old, even though we have seen a few 
more summers than you; for our eyes are not yet dim, nor 
our natural force abated, and above all we are supremely 
rich in that quality which is the characteristic sign of youth, 
Hope. 

I remember once hearing a charming after-dinner speech 
by Joe Jefferson, who said that old men are sad, not so much 
because of weakness and infirmity, but for lack of that most 
enjoyable factor of life : Hope. Old men, having little or 
nothing to look forward to, live in the past. He therefore 
recommended gardening "because it is always pointing for- 
ward, always giving one something to expect." When you 
hoar al)out our work you will realize that in the Department 
of Ministerial Relief, at least, we show no signs of senility; 

207 



208 THE RETIRED MIXISTER 

for though we have little to boast of b}^ wa}' of achievement, 
we are exceedingly rich in expectations. 

A System of Pexsioxs. The Congregational Board of 
Ministerial Relief has two functions which, though kindred 
in nature, are entirely separate and distinct. 

In the first place, by a system of modest pensions it pro- 
vides for the necessities of those Veteran Ministers who have 
been unable to make adequate personal provision for old age 
and infirmity. While these pensions do not go to all aged 
ministers, but only to the small numljer whom the evening of 
life finds in special want, we are careful to emphasize the 
fact that this money is not to be thought of as a charitable 
gift, but rather as a well-earned and honorable reward offered 
by the Church to disabled but unconquered soldiers of the 
cross. This part of our work has been going on for many 
years and will doubtless be continued for years to come. In 
thirteen States it has been carried on by local societies for 
ministerial relief in cooperation with the National Board. 
Besides providing the required pensions, we have made a fair 
start in the direction of endowment, having raised $670,000 
for this purpose. We feel keenly that the pensions hitherto 
provided are quite too small. Three hundred dollars, in some 
States four hundred dollars, is our maximum. We have great 
liope that this sum may be increased 30 or 40 per cent. 

Ax AxxuiTY FuxD. A second function of the Board of 
Ministerial Relief is that of establishing and conducting an 
Annuity Fund for the benefit of all Congregational ministers 
who are willing and able to comply with its conditions. This 
is a new task. In 1913 we presented to the National Council 
of Congregational Churches a report touching the economic 
condition of our ministers and their necessities, together with 
a practical plan for their relief. 

The Mix^ister's Ecoxoiiic Coxditiox^. The Board pro- 
nounced it a matter of imperative importance that some effec- 
tive measures for the relief of our ministers be set on foot. 
At once upon entering the ministry a man gives up the usual 
opportunities of making money, and the hope of possessing 
many of the luxuries or larger comforts of life, things which 
by education and culture he is fitted to appreciate. These he 
cheerfully surrenders for Christ's sake and the gospel's. In 
return for such sacrifice, it is only right, if he be a faithful 



THE CONGEEGATIONAL CHURCH 209 

man of fair ability, that his profession should afford him a 
living of secure and moderate comfort up to the very end of 
his days. This was the idea of our fathers, and it accords 
with the Master's teachings that the laborer is v/orthy of his 
hire. In the life of the modern Protestant Church we have, 
however, fallen far below this ideal. Professor Eauschenbusch 
affirms that our ministers properly belong to the proletariat; 
their wages rarely ample, generally meager and often pitifully 
small; their employment irregular, uncertain, and, as they 
advance in years, increasingly difficult to find ; many of them 
having no fixed abode, but drifting from city to city and from 
village to village, with but the slightest 023portunity of saving 
for themselves; dependent for support in old age upon chil- 
dren, kindred or friends. 

The Present Situation is Deplorable. The average 
salary is barely a thousand dollars. Multitudes of faithful 
men receive much less than that, and only thirteen out of 
every hundred exceed fifteen hundred dollars. The attempt 
to live and provide for a family upon such incomes, especially 
within the past few years, can mean but one thing, that for 
thousands of our preachers life is a steady fight with poverty, 
a struggle that bears with special severity upon ministers' 
wives. And this is not the worst of it. The averasfe minister 
has before him the cheerless prospect that at the portals of old 
age, even this meager income will cease, and he, whose narrow 
means have made saving almost impossible, having no further 
opportunity to earn a living by his chosen profession, will be 
thrown into a position of humiliating dependency. . Such 
conditions are alike unjust to the Christian minister and 
discreditable to the Church. 

Society, long committed to the principle that the old age 
of public servants should be provided for, has in recent years 
been giving wide extension to that principle. Pensions are 
granted to-day, not to old soldiers only, but to railroad 
employees, to veteran police and firemen, to teachers and 
professors, and to employees of great corporations. It is high 
time for the C/hurch to begin treating with more systematic 
and considerate care the old age of A'^eteran Preachers. 

Usefulness of Pensions. Such provision should increase 
a minister's efficiency. To be assured that he has something 
coining to liini in tlio day of need would release a man from 



210 THE RETIRED MINISTER 

anxiety, afford liim a comfortable sense of security, and 
enable him to give an undivided mind to his great work. 
Relieved from the necessity of saving every possible penny 
against the evil day, he might have somewhat more to spend 
on the necessities of life, the wholesome and abundant food 
that makes one fit for work, the decent clothing required both 
for self-respect and the respect of the community, and the 
books that are the essential tools of the preacher's trade. 

Such provision should also tend to lengthen the period of 
his activity in pastoral service. Our present method of deal- 
ing with ministers is unspeakably wasteful. On the one hand, 
we complain of the meager supply of preachers, and plead 
with young men to enter the profession, while on the other we 
are throwing away, by scores and hundreds, fully trained and 
equipped men at the very summit of their power. A minister 
at fifty years of age, if his health be unimpaired and if, escap- 
ing the snares of indolence, he has been giving his whole heart 
to his callinsf, is worth much more to anv church than he 
was worth at forty, and immeasurably more than at thirty. 
Any loss of youthful ardor is much more than replaced by 
his increased richness and ripeness of mind, his practical 
wisdom, his growth in tenderness of heart and in spiritual 
power. Yet, these fundamental facts of ministerial experi- 
ence very frequently have no weight whatever with churches ; 
for if, for any reason, the minister of fifty or more loses his 
pulpit, he finds it extremely difficult to find another. Churches 
seeking for a man of his very type will pass him by without 
consideration, their dominant reason being the fear that if 
they take him they may in a few years ^'have an old man on 
their hands.'' 

At whatever age he may have been called to a church, it 
must certainly be a disagreeable task to dismiss a worthy and 
beloved pastor because he is too old to serve efficiently, espe- 
cially when he has no competence beyond his salary. Few 
churches can afford to retire him on half-pay. It is deemed 
simpler, in order to avoid all such embarrassments, to choose 
a younger man as minister and then let him go before he 
becomes old. However strongly one may disapprove this 
policy, he must recognize the fact that the condition exists, 
and there is reason to believe that proper provision for the 
minister's old age will, in a measure, serve to rectify it. If 



THE CONGREGATIONAL CHUECH 211 

the Church could feel that his old age was partly provided for 
there might be greater willingness to employ him in the later 
and more effective years of his maturity. On the other hand, 
by tending to enhance the dignity and security of the minis- 
terial office such provision would be influential in persuading 
young men to enter the ministry. The clergyman's unfortu- 
nate economic condition has doubtless had no small influence 
in withholding them from the profession. It is not that our 
youth lack the heroic spirit, the willingness to make sacrifices ; 
but it is one thing to sacrifice yourself and quite another to 
sacrifice your wife and children. Not every sacrifice is noble. 
That which involves the crippling of one's powers, the narrow- 
ing of one's opportunities, and the diminution of one's influ- 
ence is always of questionable wisdom. If we wish to secure 
for the Christian ministry the best of our 3^oung men, we must 
take all possible pains to make the minister's place one of 
dignity and genuine opportunity. 

The Proposed Plan". In view of these facts and condi- 
tions, the Board of Ministerial Relief presented to the Na- 
tional Council a definite, practical plan to be known as ^^The 
Annuity Fund for Congregational Ministers," by means of 
which a certain modest provision might be made in the future 
for any and every Congregational minister who should find 
himself willing and able to enter into the proposed arrange- 
ment. This j)lan was adopted by the Council by a practically 
unanimous vote. The Board was directed to take such steps 
as might be necessary to set it on foot and make it effecti^-e, 
and was authorized to undertake the raising of a two million- 
dollar fund, the income of which should be applied to this 
purpose. The plan rests upon three fundamental principles : 

1. That every minister for whom an annuity is to be pro- 
vided should himself help to provide it by regular payments 
during the j^roductive period of his life; 

2. That every church should be taught to regard its fair 
share of the necessary cost of properly providing for the old 
age of Congregational ministers as a part of its ordinary fixed 
expenses ; 

3. That every man of ample means among us should be 
made acquainted with this fund as affording one of the safest, 
sanest and best investments for the kingdom of God. 



212 



THE RETIRED MINISTER 



We append the table of rates of ministers' payments for 
annuities to begin at age of sixt3'-fiYe. 



R. 


^TES OF 


Patmex 


r FOR 


AxxuiTiES Cox 


GREGATIOXAL 








Church 








Annuity Payment to Ministers to begin at 


sixty-five. 






Semi- 


Quar- 






Semi- 


Quar- 


Age 


Annual 


Annual 


terly 


Age 


Annual 


Annual 


terly 


21 


$21.47 


$11.05 


$5.69 


39 


$36.36 


$18.72 


$9.63 


22 


21.52 


11.08 


5.70 


40 


38.22 


19.68 


10.13 


23 


21.57 


11.11 


5.71 


41 


40.25 


20.73 


10.67 


24 


21.77 


11.21 


5.77 


42 


42.48 


21.88 


11.26 


25 


22.13 


11.39 


5.86 


43 


44.93 


23.14 


11.91 


26 


22.57 


11.62 


5.98 


44 


47.64 


24.53 


12.62 


27 


23.09 


11.89 


6.12 


45 


50.61 


26.06 


13.41 


28 


23.70 


12.21 


6.28 


46 


53.93 


27.77 


14.29 


29 


24.38 


12.56 


6.46 


47 


57.64 


29.68 


15.27 


30 


25.15 


12.95 


6.66 


48 


61.77 


31.81 


16.37 


31 


26.00 


13.39 


6.90 


49 


66.45 


34.22 


17.61 


32 


26.93 


13.87 


7.14 


50 


71.77 


36.96 


19.02 


33 


27.96 


14.40 


7.41 


51 


77.84 


40.09 


20.63 


34 


29.08 


14.98 


7.71 


52 


84.86 


43.71 


22.49 


35 


30.28 


15.59 


8.02 


53 


93.02 


47.91 


24.65 


36 


31.62 


16.14 


8.24 


54 


102.66 


52.87 


27.20 


37 


33.06 


17.03 


8.76 


55 


114.22 


58.82 


30.27 


38 


34.63 


17.84 


9.18 










Rates for annuities to begin 


at age 


of seventy. 








Semi- 


Quar- 






Semi- 


Quar- 


Age 


Annual 


Annual 


terly 


Age 


Annual 


Annual 


terlv 


40 


$25.89 


$13.33 


$6.86 


51 


$45.45 


$23.41 


$12.04 


41 


27.01 


13.91 


7.16 


52 


48.44 


24.95 


12.84 


42 


28.44 


14.65 


7.54 


53 


51.77 


26.68 


13.72 


43 


29.55 


15.22 


7.83 


54 


55.53 


28.60 


14.72 


44 


30.97 


15.95 


8.21 


55 


59.77 


30.78 


15.54 


45 


32.52 


16.75 


8.62 


56 


64.61 


33.27 


17.12 


46 


34.21 


17.62 


9.07 


57 


70.19 


36.15 


18.60 


47 


36.06 


18.57 


9.56 


58 


76.71 


39.51 


20.33 


48 


38.08 


19.61 


10.09 


59 


84.42 


43.48 


22.37 


49 


40.29 


20.75 


10.68 


60 


93.69 


48.25 


24.83 


50 


42.75 


22.01 


11.33 











Samuel L. Loomis. 



Westfield, :NL J. 




THE CHURCH'S 
PROGRAM 

DISCIPLES OF CHRIST 

THE REV. W. R. WARREN, D.D. 

Secretary Board of Ministerial Relief, 
The Church of Christ 



In the beginning, and for the first seventy-five years of 
their history, most Ministers among the Disciples supported 
themselves wholly or in part by work in other callings. This 
was comparatively easy, since they were largely a rural people. 
Possibly this compelled them to be a rural people. Alexander 
Campbell himself was a prosperous farmer, as well as a suc- 
cessful publisher, along with his distinguishing labor as 
preacher, educator and writer. 

The persistence of the type was strengthened by the reac- 
tion against the distinction between clergy and laity ; and the 
natural instinct of economy mightily reinforced the rebellion 
against a "hireling ministry.^^ The doctrine of plain meeting- 
house and unsalaried preacher was full of comfort to the 
thrifty soul. But as the farmer of the Middle West was also 
a hospitable soul, the churches multiplied through the upper 
Mississippi Valley. 

Of course many churches were planted at an early date in 
cities and towns. These were strengthened and others were 
started by the general urban trend of population. Increas- 
ingly the larger churches thus developed required the full 
time and undivided attention of their Ministers. The first 
salaries were small, and as the men approached retirement it 
became manifest that some provision must be made for their 
old age, as well as for disasters that might sooner overtake 
them. So in 1885 the General Missionary Convention under- 
took to effect a national organization of the work that was 
already being done locally in many quarters and by the whole 
State of Missouri. 

213 



214 THE EETIEED MIKISTEE 

Not until 1895, liowever, was a permanent organization 
formed, through the Board of Ministerial Eelief of the 
Church of Christ, incorporated in 1897 with headquarters in 
Indianapolis. In its Permanent Fund are two items that 
commemorate the earlier efforts: "The Missouri State Fund, 
$800" and "Scott Fund, held in Trust ])y the American Chris- 
tian Missionary Society, $2000." The latter came from a 
bequest paid in 1887. 

The prime mover in establislnnent of the Board was Mr. 
A. M. Atkinson, a business man of Wabash, Indiana. Together 
with W. S. Priest, W. F. Cowden, W. F. Richardson and 
N. S. Haynes, he was appointed on the Committee on Min- 
isterial Relief at the International Convention of 1894:, in 
response to a memorial from the State Convention of Col- 
orado, where Mr. R. H. Sawyer had agitated the question. 
During the year ex-Governor Ira J. Chase, one of Indiana's 
greatl}^ admired preachers, died suddenly, leaving his wife 
totally blind and helpless. Mr. Atkinson at once raised a 
fund for her support, and while doing so, became so deeply 
impressed with the necessity of general and concerted action, 
that he devoted the rest of his life and much of his means to 
the cause, dying in 1899, during the Cincinnati Convention 
at the close of an imj^assioned address to a group of fellow 
business men, his last words being, "Quit you like men !" 

After Mr. Atkinson, the leadership fell to Mr. Howard 
Cale, a prominent lawyer of Indianapolis, the generous efforts 
of Chaplain J. B. McCleery, U. S. A., retired, having been 
cut short by death. When Mr. Cale died, in 1901:, the Rev. 
A. L. Orcutt, a highly esteemed Indianapolis minister, suc- 
ceeded him as President of the Board, having served several 
years as its Secretary. 

For two years the work was carried on, as best it could be, 
in connection with his pastorate, and then he was asked to 
give his full time to the effort of promoting the cause from 
the office, with but little expense of travel. The operation of 
the law, "To him that hath shall be given," was not yet on 
the side of the Board. Its small outlay brought meager 
increase of receipts from year to year, and though the expense 
was held down to the minimum the percentage was ruinously 
high. The first year's receipts, 1896, were $5,340. In 1910, 
they were $14,306. 



I 



THE DISCIPLES OF CHEIST 215 

But information was spreading and conviction ripening for 
a more marked advance, which was started by another devoted 
business man, who in 1911 generously proposed that, if the 
Brotherhood would raise $20,000 the next year, he would 
add twenty per cent to it, and in the same proportion up to 
$30,000, and would continue to do so for five years. When 
it proved impossible to bring this challenge home to the 
people effectively from an office, the Board called W. R. 
Warren to become Secretary, in the belief that his four years' 
experience as Centennial Secretary would assure prompt 
success. Eleven months had brought in only a little over 
$8,000, leaving $12,000 to get in one month in order to 
secure the $4,000 extra. By providential intervention and 
extra effort the goal was reached. Every one of the three 
State Conventions, three churches and one hundred and seven 
individuals that were seen responded generously, while only 
one of the sixty letters written brought an offering, and that 
from a member of the Board. In 1913 $5,325 was received 
on the twenty per cent proposition and in 1914, the full 
$6,000. 

In the two years during which the Board has been in the 
field with but a minimum equipment for a continental work, 
the total receipts have grown from $17,317 to $39,686, and 
the Permanent Fund has increased from $31,514 to $69,274. 
At the same time we have had full fellowship with the other 
national boards in the Men and Millions Movement, which 
is expected to add $200,000 to our Permanent Fund. 

From the first the rule has been to add to the roll every 
applicant who on investigation was found: First, To have 
given his life wholly to the ministry, any other work having 
been only incidental; Second, To have lived "as becometh 
the Gospel"; Third, To be without other sufficient support. 
Until the advance of two years ago this kept the maximum 
payment down to $25 or $30 per quarter. The revival of 
interest, it develops, came just in time to meet greatly 
increased demands, and has been strong enough to enable us 
to increase payments to as high as $25 and $30 per month, 
and in one instance, $40. 

In 1913 the retired missionaries of both the Foreign Chris- 
tian Missionary Society and the Christian Woman's Board 
of Missions were added to the pension roll, payments being 



216 THE EETIRED MINISTER 

made through those boards, which in many instances add an 
allowance out of their own treasuries. 

On September 30, 1914, the pension roll carried 111 names: 
()0 ministers, 43 widows and 8 missionaries, a net gain of 
26 during the year. The total of pensions paid was $19,356, 
a gain of $5,590. The average was $190, a gain of $62 in two 
years. One received $435; sixteen, $300 to $360; nineteen, 
$200 to $295; thirty-nine, $120 to $180; nineteen $60 to $80; 
and seven, smaller sums for parts of the year. 

The average age of ministers pensioned on aceount of old 
age is T4 years; of those pensioned for other disabilities, 51 
years; of the whole list, 70 years; of the widows, 65 years. 
The average ministerial service of the ministers on the roll 
was 33 years; of the widows, 30 years; the total ministerial 
work represented by the 111 names being 3,539 years. 

Money received from Annuity Bonds, Bequests and the 
larger individual gifts is added to the Permanent Fund, 
which is loaned at 6 per cent on improved real estate in and 
near Indianapolis, where it is exempt from taxation and 
can be looked after by the Board's officers. 

The Sunday before Christmas is the regular day for the 
])resentation of the work in tlie churches. Better results are 
coming from the Every-Meml)cr Canvass and the Missionary 
Budget. Tlie jiumber of contributing churches and Sunday 
schools in 1914 was 910, a gain of 105. For 1915 the Board 
has united with the other national societies in presenting a 
joint apportionment to about 8,000 churches. Considerable 
interest is l)eing taken by the Sunday schools in our sugges- 
tion that they adopt the "White Gifts for the King" Christ- 
mas service and devote their "Gifts of Substance" to "Min- 
isterial Relief; for those who, having given self and service 
fully until disal)led, should be made guests at the King's 
table." The supplies are furnished free to such schools as 
promise to give their offerings to the fund. 

The custom of our Annual International Convention is to 
make an offering to Ministerial Relief in the Sunday after- 
noon Communion service. At the Centennial in Pittsburgh, 
in 1909, this amounted to $2,619. In Toronto in 1913, on 
the statement that half of the amount received would be used 
for the benefit of the three sons of Mr. and Mrs. Eldred, mis- 
sionaries who had both died in Africa during the year, $3,623 



THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST 217 

was given. Sliortly afterward Doctor and Mrs. Hugh T. 
Morrison, of Springfield, 111., undertook the full care and 
expense of rearing the boys in their home and as their own. 
A notable example of the work's beneficence Avas furnished 
lasi year in the case of a prominent minister, wdiose health 
broke so completely that it was thought he could never preach 
again. The relief from anxiety and the sense of fellowship, 
which the assurance of a monthly pension brought, enabled 
liim to recover so rapidly and completely that after two pay- 
ments he took a less exacting charge, in which he has been 
richly blessed. His son had been taken out of college to earn 
the family's living, but on receipt of the pension, went back, 
is now preparing for the ministry, and preached his first 
sermon on the Sunday of the Atlanta International Conven- 
tion. 

COMPAIUTIYE FINANCIAL STATEMENT 

Receipts 

Sources 1911 1912 1913 1914 

Churches $7,500 $8,982 $13,11:1 $15,528 

Individuals 2,394 4,055 2,648 2,455 

Bequests 3,219 6,112 6,312 300 

Annuities 1,600 1,100 2,700 5,800 

Conventions 768 10 1,039 3,367 

Miscellaneous 35 4 784 2,750 



Total $15,516 $20,263 $26,624 $30,200 

The 20 Per cent Pro- 
position 4,053 5,325 6,000 

Interest and Rent 1,800 1,666 2,011 3,486 

Total $17,316 $25,982 $33,960 $39,686 

Pensions 

Names on Roll 71 75 85 111 26 

Amount Paid. . .$8,816 $9,540 $13,760 $19,356 $5,590 

William R. Warren. 
Indianapolis, Ind, 



218 THE EETIRED MINISTER 

THE TOUCH OF A VANISHED HAND 
John Troland 

We sigh for the touch of a vanished hand — 

The hand of a friend most dear, 
Who has passed from our side to the shadowy land; 

But what of the hand that is near? 

To the living touch is the soul inert 

That weeps o'er the silent urn? 
For the love that lives in our hand alert 

To make some sweet return? 

As the days go by, are our hands more swift 

For a trifle beyond their share 
Than to grasp — for a kindly, helpful lift — 

The burdens someone must bear? 

We sigh for the touch of a vanished hand, 

And we think ourselves sincere; 
But what of the friends that about us stand, 

And the touch of a hand thaVs here? 



THE VETERAN'S HAND 

After fifty years in the Baptist ministry the Rev. B. T. 
Welch, in a half-playful, half-rapturous manner, would hold 
up his thin, trembling, palsied hand and say to it : 

"Old Hand, what ails you? Cannot you be still for a 
moment? Seventy and six years have left their marks on 
you. But bless the King in Zion this day for all the service 
you have been able to render Him. How often have you 
handled the sacred pages of His Word ! What use you have 
been in preaching His gospel ! How often you have baptized 
loving disciples ! How many you have received into fellow- 
ship into His Church ! For how many you have broken the 
emblem of His broken body ! Poor old hand ! I remember 
when you were fair and young and strong. 

"Never mind the past. Thanks to my loving Lord, it will 
not be long before you will put your fingers into the print of 
the nails in His hand; not long before you will lay a crown 
at His feet; not long before He will stretch out His own 
hand, mighty to save, and grasp you and greet you, and Plis 
touch will heal your palsy and send immortality thrilling 
through your every vein and fiber. Be of good cheer, old 
Hand ! You shall soon touch more than the hem of His robe, 
His robe, and are healed forever !" 




THE CHURCH'S 
PROGRAM 

REFORMED (DUTCH) CHURCH 
IN AMERICA 

THE REV. DENIS WORTMAN, D.D. 

Secretary Ministerial Relief, Reformed (Dutch) Church 
in America 



The Reformed Church has two methods of Ministerial 
Relief, the Disabled Ministers^ Fund and the Widows' Fund. 
They are alike in this, that ministers, their widows and 
orphans may receive this greatly needed benefit; they both 
have a partial endowment, the churches are supposed to make 
an annual offering for both funds; both deserve and require 
larger endowment and larger annual sustainment. They differ 
only in methods and measures of help; the former being 
a blessed beneficence, the latter a happily combined beneficence 
and insurance. 

The Disabled Ministers' Fund, started in 1854 and re- 
constructed in 1863, is for relief of Disabled Ministers, and 
their widows and orphans in honorable need. Assistance 
is unfortunately limited, on account of lack of funds, to $200 
a year; and may be given only as recommended by Classis, 
and year by year. We seek larger annual offerings and 
worthier endowment, so we be not limited to such miserly 
amounts. The annual offering has now increased from $3,900 
to $8,535; which must be increased to $10,000, and be 
kept there, at the least. The Fund has an endowment of 
$101,000, which we must increase to $250,000 at least, for 
which we ask and entreat large gifts and legacies from the 
rich. Eighteen ministers and thirty-six widows are now en- 
joying this relief. Meanwhile the number of annuitants 
increases from year to year, and will continue to do so with 
increase of prices of living and the earlier retirement of 
Ministers. 

The Widows' Fund is a combined beneficence and insur- 
ance, and I think a unique and inviting one. If tlie minister 
begins insurance at thirty-five years of age or under, his 

219 



220 THE EETIEED MIXISTEE 

premium is $20 a year for life ; if he begins between thirty- 
five and forty-five, it is $30 a year ; if between forty-five and 
fifty-five, it is $-10; if between fifty-fi\e and sixty, it is $45. 
After sixty it is too late. The annuity to the widow of the 
insurer is $200 during her lifetime ; and at her death her 
children, under sixteen, receive a percentage. If there is 
not sufficient money for the $200, the annuity is proportionate 
to money in the treasury. This year it is $185. The minister 
himself may receive this aid, when recommended by Classis, 
upon two physicians' certificates that lie is permanently in- 
capacitated for ministerial service. 

The present endowment of this Fund is only $114,000, and 
tlie General Synod urgently calls for its increase to at least 
$250,000. This last church-year ministers gave toward their 
own insurance $2,200, and two thirds of our churches (the 
others not strong ones, but largely missionary) gave $5,550; 
which latter figure ought to be $10,000. The present annu- 
ities of $185 should be $300, if we would be in line with 
kindred denominations. There are now on this fund twenty- 
one ministers and fifty-seven widows. Some others should 
be receiving this relief who are deterred from asking because 
of the stringency of our funds. The increasing expenses of liv- 
ing, the fateful shortening of ministers' terms of service, the 
deplorable extent to which churches and ministers are in 
jeopardy of a shortening service, imperil the prosperity of 
the churches as well as the prolongation of gracious pas- 
torates and discourage strong and energetic young men from 
perilous pastorates, short and precarious. These considera- 
tions summon men and women of wealth to the handsome 
endowment of these precious funds. 

For all Thy reverend servants, Lord, 

Who long have served and bravely borne, 

Who well have taught and wrought Thy word, 
Whose virtues still Thy Church adorn, 

We bless Thee, and implore Thy grace 

Till, past dark death, they see Thy face. 

Surcease be theirs from fears and tears 

While through these earthly wilds they roam, 

And grateful thoughts of well-spent years 
While gazing toward their nearing home; 

And ours the children's heritage 

Of sweetening their declining age. 



GERMAN^ BAPTISTS 321 

We thank Thee for their lives sincere 

That warned and wooed awaj^ from sin. 
For words of wisdom and of cheer 

That helped us worthier w^ealths to win; 
Lord, may we save from care and loss 
The saints that led us to the Cross! 

May we who follow in their train 

Their virtues view and deeds outdo, 
And like them strive the world to gain 

For Him who to its rescue flew; 
Him and them may we join, among 
Thine aged made forever young! 

Dexis Wortman'. 

East Orange, N. J. 



GEEMAX BAPTISTS OF AMERICA 

For many years the German Baptist Conferences have 
come to the aid of their aged and infirm ministers as their 
condition required. The General Missionary Committee be- 
gan in a humble way aiding a few until to-day the appro- 
priations amount to $2,475 annually. Thanksgiving Day or 
iSTew Year's Eve offerings have been devoted to this cause, 
and in churches which have introduced the duplex envelope 
a certain percentage is designated to this purpose. Sixteen 
ministers receive an annual allowance of from $50 to $250. 
Last year $3,556 were disbursed for relief to ministers and 
their families. 

Several years ago a legacy of $2,000 was left, the interest 
of which was to be used for ministerial relief to be known 
as the "Martha E. Miller Fund.'' Mrs. Miller had been a 
minister's wife; her husband had been compelled to leave 
the ministry on account of ill-health. He prospered in busi- 
ness and devoted much money to God's kingdom and remem- 
bered his brethren during his lifetime and gave this legacy 
through his wife. The German Baptist Publication Society 
voted $500 of its profits in 1910 and the same amount in 1911 
for ministers' pension or ministerial relief. This was to inspire 
people to create a permanent fund. 

At the General Conference in 1910 a committee of repre- 
sentative men was appointed to devise plans for a more thor- 
ough and extensive Ministerial Relief Fund, to report at the 
next General Conference. 



222 THE EETIKED MINISTER 

The ministers themselves have for many years sustained a 
Society known as "The Mutual Aid Society of German Bap- 
tist Ministers of North America." It was incorporated with- 
out capital and strives to enlist all the younger ministers. 
It has a membershi]) of 137 at present. The average assess- 
ment is $10 per year, and the benefit in case of death is $250, 
if the minister should die within five years of his member- 
ship, and $500 after that term. This Society has aided 
thirt3^-one ministers' widows or their families during the past 
fifteen years. 



THE XEW ZEALAXD SUPERAXXUATIOX FUXD 

Each minister pays an annual subscription of $41, and the 
circuits j^ay for each minister $56 yearly. The annuities 
range from $150 per annum to ministers superannuated 
after five years' service, to $700 to those who ha^•e labored 
forty-four years. The secretary recently said, "The next 
General Conference ought to be able to declare an apprecialde 
increase to the annuities. The capital now stands at $2,225,- 
000, and 52 per cent of the annual income is being added to 
the accumulated capital." 



WESLEYAX SUPEEANNUATES 

The report of our Wesleyan brethren on the "Worn- Out 
Ministers' Fund has just been made, showing a healthy con- 
dition. There are nearly nine hundred ministers and minis- 
ters' widows having claims on the fund, and the leaders of 
the Church hope that the increased donations are a recogni- 
tion of the claims of the fund and likely to continue. The 
average term of service in the Wesleyan ministry is thirty- 
eight years, and the average grant for supernumeraries is 
$5 per week, and for widows in the neighborhood of $3. 

The Methodist Eecorder, commenting upon this, delivers 
itself in words that could apply with equal propriety to 
American Methodism. It says : 

"Let our readers consider what it means — that after near 
forty years' service in our ministry there is a pension of one 
pound a week ! AYe are all hearing of the increased cost of 
living, but we have heard of very few^ ministers' stipends 



JEWISH EABBIS 223 

that have increased. There are thousands of generous people 
in Methodism who are sometimes distressed because it is 
difficult to find cases in which they can be sure their gifts 
will be rightly applied. We would suggest to them this fund. 
^Charity' is not the word. The brethren are of our own 
household, and cannot be disregarded because they are old. 
We know a kind-hearted master by his affection for his old 
servants, a loyal-hearted man by his love for his old teacher; 
may we not know a Christian Church by its care for its old 
ministers ?" 



JEWISH EABBIS 

In Jewish reformed congregations, the highest salary is 
$18,000 per annum, the next $15,000, there being quite a 
few at $10,000 and $12,000, while salaries of $5,000 and 
upward are common. The leading Jewish congregations in 
Cincinnati pay their ministers $7,000 and $10,000 respec- 
tively, and in addition these gentlemen receive fees amount- 
ing to several hundred dollars more. But even at these 
figures there are not enough graduates from the American 
Jewish theological schools to properly supply the increasing 
demand, and the average salary tends to become larger. 

"Eeading such figures, some financially-hard-pressed min- 
isters might be just a little tempted to say, ' "Almost thou 
persuadest me to be'' — a Jew V That even with such salaries 
there are not enough young rabbis for the demand would 
indicate that among both Jews and Gentiles the financial 
consideration is not the foremost element in the call to 
preach." — Western Christian Advocate. 



SUPEEANNUATE HOMES 

The North Alabama Conference of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, Soutli, has an agent for Superannuate Homes, 
and has provided for thirty-two families since the movement 
was inaugurated. The Homes are proving a great blessing 
to the claimants, and a blessing to the communities. 

There are thirty Homes valued at $07,000. 

The California Conference has twenty Conference Claim- 
ants' Homes all occupied. 



22i . THE EETIRED MINISTER 

THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH 

. The following general statement is of interest: 

The full account of the methods and institutions employed 
by the Methodist Episcopal Church in securing the money 
needed to pay in full the inherent, foremost and supremo 
claim of its Retired Ministers will be found in Part III. 
The following general statement indicates progress: 

THE GIST OF IT 

I. $4,000,000 raised for distribution from 1908 to 1913. 

II. $2,500,000 added to Investments since 1908. 

III. $1,500,000 additional increase distributed to Claimants 
during the last five years as compared with any previous five 
years. 

IV. $500,000 increase in annual distribution in 1911: as 
compared with 1908. 

Y. Number of Claimants in 1913 was G,589: 3,181 min- 
isters, 3,123 widows, 285 orphans. 

YI. 8T9 Claimants received less than $50 each. 
1,1 Tl Received from $51 to $100. 
1,200 
1,171 
411 
127 
13 
(Children not included.) 

YIL Average salary, $720; average Disciplinary rate. 
$10.25. 

YIII. Average Annuity rate paid, $5.25; 51% of the full 
Disciplinary rate. 

IX. MONEY NEEDED Each Year to Pay All Claims, 
$1,600,000. 

X. For the twenty years prior to 1907 direct contributions 
from pastoral charges increased at the rate of $9,000 a year. 
Since 1908 the increase has been $30,000 a year. 

Let us devoutly say, ''What hath God ivrought!" 
XL The total revenue for distribution in 1913 represents a 
five per cent income on $22,000,000. To meet its obligations 
the Methodist Episcopal Church needs an annual revenue 
equal to five per cent of $32,000,000. Hence the need of the 
1915 CAMPAIGN for $10,000,000 additional Endowment. 



101 


to 


200. 


201 


to 


300. 


301 


to 


400. 


401 


to 


500. 


501 


to 


GOO. 


20; 


average 




THE CHURCH'S 
PROGRAM 

THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL 
CHURCH 

THE REV. J. B. HINGELEY, D.D. 

Corresponding Secretary 
Board of Conference Claimants 



The movement for providing for Disabled Preachers in the 
Methodist Episcopal Church dates back to Revolutionary days 
when the inquiry was made at the Conference of the little 
band of Wesleyans as to what could be done for the preachers 
who were worn out in the service. At that time all the Meth- 
odists in America could have been accommodated in any 
church in Washington. 

In those early days^ the Methodist organization was com- 
munistic. Each preacher received the same salary and the 
provision for the care of the superannuated preacher was the 
same as that for the men in the active ranks. The oldest insti- 
tution of organized Methodism is the "Chartered Fund/' 
which still exists and contributes $3,600 a year to the sup- 
port of Claimants, even though the contributors to the 
original Fund have been dead a century or more. 

From the very beginning the chief source of income for the 
Retired Preacher has been the contributions from the 
churches, which to-day amounts to half a million dollars. 

The Book Concern makes the Retired Preachers benefici- 
aries of its income, the amount paid for the care of the aged 
ministers, widows, and orphans, now being $300,000 per year. 

Most Annual Conferences have Permanent Funds, varying 
from $10,000 to $300,000. The income of this money is 
applied to the relief of Claimants. In 1908 the Church pro- 
vided a connectional, or general board, known as the Board 
of Conference Claimants, to care for the general interests of 
the Retired Ministers, and to create funds for the special 
care of those who are in the poorer sections of the country. 
Since the organization of the Board of Conference Claimants, 

225 



226 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

there has been an annual increase of the distrilnition through- 
out the Church of $500,000. This legislation marks an era of 
advance along this line. In 1912 the General Conference 
asked for an additional five million dollars for investments. 
The campaign to secure this money is known as the "1915 
CAMPAIGN. '^ Each Conference is projecting a campaign 
for enough funds to meet its own obligations, and the Board 
of Conference Claimants is seeking additions to its funds. 

In April, 1914, the Bishops appointed a special Committee, 
consisting of Bishops McDowell, Berry, and Quayle, to prepare 
an Address and Appeal to the Church in behalf of a '$5,000,- 
000 Fund, the appeal to be presented at a special meeting to 
be held in Washington during their fall meeting. On Thurs- 
day night, October 29, 1914, this 

ADDRESS AND APPEAL TO THE CHURCH 

was delivered in the presence of representatives of thirty 
Conferences, and a large gathering of local Methodists. The 
Inauguration Meeting was fittingly held in the Metropolitan 
Church at the capital of the Nation. 

The program for the Convention was prepared with great 
care, all the men upon the program being familiar with the 
special toj^ics to be presented. On Tuesday afternoon and 
AYednesday morning there was a review of the present provi- 
sions made for the care of Retired Ministers. On Wednesday 
afternoon, plans for the intensive and cooperative Campaign 
were discussed. On Thursday, Dr. McClure, of the Protes- 
tant Episcopal Church, Dr. Eoulkes, of the Presljyterian 
Church, Dr. Stewart, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South, Dr. Loomis, of the Congregational Church, Dr. Sweets, 
of the Southern Presbyterian Church, and Dr. Matteson, of 
the Baptist Church, told what was being done in these great 
Churches to provide suitably for the Retired Preachers. 

Mr. J. W. Renner, Secretary of the Pension Department 
of the Pennsylvania Railroad, presented an instructive address 
as to what is being done by that great railroad to provide for 
aged employees. There were also special addresses on the 
Pensions by Corporations, Wills, Life Annuity Bonds, and 
other topics of vital interest to the cause. 

"The Veterans of the Cross Fellowship,'^ is an organization 
of the Retired Preachers, for the jDurpose of cultivating fel- 



THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHUECH 227 

lowship and bringing them into closer touch with the Church's 
work. Dr. Varnam A. Cooper, the President of the National 
organization, as well as a great many of its members, are 
Veteran Soldiers, and naturally enough, the language of the 
campaign and the camp is the language of this delightful 
Fellowship. There is no lack of numbers sufficient for such 
an organization. We are accustomed to large numbers in con- 
nection with all things Methodistic, but are perhaps sur- 
prised to learn that in the Methodist Episcopal Church alone, 
there are 3,181 retired preachers; 3,123 widows of preachers, 
and 500 dependent orphans, making a total of almost 7,000 
Claimants, whose claim to a comfortable support is recognized. 
Since the claim of each widow is one half that of a Eetired 
Minister of the same length of service; and the claim of the 
dependent orphan child is one fifth of what his father's claim 
would be ; it follows that the full claims of these 7,000 Claim- 
ants in the different classifications are equal to the full claims 
of 5,000 Eetired Ministers. Such a statement of the case 
may add clearness of understanding to friends of aged 
ministers who are not familiar with Methodist terminology. 

THE CLAIM 

The Methodist Episcopal Church recognizes a twofold 
obligation toward the Eetired Minister. 

First, an Annuity, or Pension, based upon the length of 
service. The amount of this Annuity varies in different Con- 
ferences, in proportion as the average salaries vary. The 
standard is the same relatively in all Conferences, namely, 
that the Eetired Mmister who has fulfilled thirty-five years of 
service is entitled to an amount equal to one half of the 
average salary of the active men in his Conference. The 
average salary varies greatly throughout the Church, but 
the ratio for the support of the Eetired Preacher is the same, 
namely, that he shall have half as much as the average pastor. 
For example, in the Baltimore Conference, the average salary 
is $1,050; the half salary, $525. The Eetired Minister who 
has fulfilled thirty-five years of service in that Conference 
is entitled to a pension of $525, and if he has served a longer 
or shorter time than thirty-five years, he would be entitled 
to such proportional share of the amount. 



228 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

Second : An additional amount, when necessary, is provided 
to relieve needy cases. The annuity or pension would make 
reasonable provision for a minister of long service, but 
onty an inadequate provision for one of short service. Hence 
in addition to the money to be distributed on the basis of 
service as annuities or pensions, the Church provides money 
which may be added to the amount of the annuity or pension. 

THE BOARD OF COXFEEEXCE CLAIMANTS 

The Board of Conference Claimants was constituted in 
order to provide this additional amount, but until funds in 
the hands of the Board are sufficient to do so. Conferences 
may apply part of their revenues to help needy cases. Be- 
cause of the necessity of so providing for necessitous cases 
the Baltimore Conference, whose lea-al annuity is $15 a year, 
pays but $10 a year. The 1915 CAMPAIGN is for the pur- 
pose of so increasing the revenues of the Board of Conference 
Claimants that its funds may be sufficient to provide what- 
ever additional help may be needed throughout the Church; 
and also to increase the invested funds of Annual Conferences 
to an amount sufficient to enal)le them to meet their annuity 
obligations. 

All departments of the Church are interested in this 1915 
CA^IPAIGN. The Bishops have written earnestly in behalf 
of it. Letters from the entire Official Family of Methodism, 
ur^ino^ the fulfillment of the Church's oblis^ation toward the 

CO . . . ^ 

Retired Preachers are printed in this volume. Bishop Old- 
ham has just written a most attractive booklet entitled, "We'll 
Do It," taking for his text the statement of Dr. V. A. Cooper, 
of the New England Conference, who when speaking of the 
vows taken by the ministers, and the promise of the laymen 
of a comfortable support, said of the lapnen, ''Tliey took us 
for life, let them see us through!" 

The work of the Board of Conference Claimants is world- 
wide. It receives money from every continent on the globe 
and extends help to Retired Methodist Preachers in China, 
India, South America, Africa, and to the warring nations of 
Europe; and when the carnage shall cease the Board will 
be the organized hand of the Church to relieve the distress of 
the aged ministers, the widows and orphans of Europe's 
stricken Methodism. 



THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH 229 

LITERATUPtE 

The Board of Conference Claimants has an extensive 
Literature, and publishes a Magazine, The Veteran 
Preacher, which is filled with items concerning his care. 

The Board of Conference Claimants has secured some fine 
music for the Cause. Dr. W, J. Kirkpatrick wrote the music 
for "Veterans of the Cross^' ; Thoro Harris, of Chicago, wrote 
music for Mrs. Smithes poem, "Eemember the Faithful.^^ Dr. 
Hingeley has a song entitled, "The Veteran's Camp Fire," 
sung to the tune, "Tenting To-night." Mr. and Mrs. Martin, 
authors of the familiar song, "God Will Take Care of You," 
wrote for the Board the words and music of "Scatter the 
Flowers Now"; and Fanny Crosby, at the request of Dr. 
Hingeley, wrote the beautiful poem entitled, "Love's Eecom- 
pense." (See Index and Table of Con-tents.) 



EPISCOPAL AEEAS 

The last General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church assigned the Bishops to the supervision of Annual 
Conferences in definite areas during the quadrennium, believ- 
ing that there will be a stronger sense of responsibility and a 
stronger administration by this method. 

Bishop Burt has already organized the Buffalo Area in the 
interests of Conference Claimants. Each of the six Confer- 
ences in his area has a separate organization to help raise 
the amount of money needed, and, beside that, these six Con- 
ferences have formed an organization for mutual assistance. 
Since the problem in this area will be to raise more than a 
million and a half dollars, such an organization can be made 
very effective. 

Chicago, 111. Joseph B. Hingeley. 



SOME BEGINNINGS 

In 1763 a Fund for worn-out preachers was inaugurated 
by Mr. Wesley. 

In 1774 the second American Conference ordered an 
Easter collection for needy itinerants. 



230 THE EETIRED MINISTER 

In 1784 a Preachers' Fund was instituted, to be kept up 
largely by a ministerial tax. This was afterwards merged 
into the (^bartered .FujhI. 

Ill 1789 the DiscipU/Kiry plcui of raising a Fund for the 
Superannuated Preachers, and the ^yidows and Orphans of 
Preacli ers luas as follows : 

Ques. 1. How can we provide for Superannuated Preachers, 
and the widows and orphans of Preachers? 

Answ. 1. Let every Preacher contribute t^^'O dollars yearly 
at the Conference. 

2. Let every one when first admitted as a Traveling 
Preacher, pay twenty shillings, Pennsylvania currency. 

3. Let the money l)e lodged in the hands of the Presiding 
Elder, or lent to tlie College ; and an account thereof kept by 
the Deacon. 

N. B. The application of the money shall rest with the 
Conference. 

4. Out of this fund, let provision be made, first, for the 
worn-out Preachers, and then for the widows and children 
of those that are dead. 

5. Every worn-out Preacher shall receive, if he wants it, 
not usually more than twenty-four pounds annually, Penn- 
sylvania currency. 

6. Every widow of a Preacher shall receive yearly, if she 
wants it, during her widowheod, twenty pounds. 

7. Every child of a Preacher shall receive once for all, if 
he wants it, twenty pounds. 

8. But none shall be entitled to any thing from this fund, 
till he has paid fifty shillings. 

9. Nor any one who neglects paying his subscription for 
three years together, unless he be sent by the Conference out 
of the LTnited States. 

10. Let every assistant, as far as possible, bring to the Con- 
ference the contril)ution of every Preacher left behind in his 
circuit. 

In 1908 the Church began to do business for the super- 
annuates along tried and successful lines by establishing the 
general or connectional Board of Conference Claimants. 



PART II. THE CLAIM FOREMOST 

CHAPTER II. THE PROGRAM OF BUSINESS 

PAGE 

A Unique Pay Roll. Leslie's 232 

1. The Pennsylvania Lines Renner 233 

2. Railroad Pension Systems — Table Foulkes 238 

3. The Chicago & Northwestern Railroad 239 

4. Industrial Pension Systems Foulkes 240 

Aged and Disabled Printers 240 

5. What Corporations are Doing Pew 241 

6. The First National Bank, Chicago 244 

Carnegie Foundation 246 

7. Teachers' Retirement, New York City. Hartwell 247 

8. Teachers' Pension Funds — Table Foulkes 249 

"The Pension Habit." Mail 250 

Transmuting the Truth Into Gold. 
Leslie's '. . . 250 

9. Old-Age, Mothers' and Government 

Pensions Applegate 251 

Illinois Mothers' Pensions 256 

Ohio Mothers' Pensions 256 

Old-Age Pensions 256 

10. Two Workmen: Likeness and Contrast 258 

States having Mothers' Pensions. . . .259 

United States Pensions 260 

Holland's Old-Age Pensions 260 




A UNIQUE PAY EOUL 

With 2,040 active employees ^vho have been in service 
forty years or longer, and with 1,572 men who served forty 
years or more and are now receiving pensions, the Pennsyl- 
vania Eailroad has a unique pay roll, with 489 men who have 
been in its service more than fifty 3^ears. The employees 
in the service fifty years or longer are as follows : 



1 employee 66 yrs., 
3 employees 64 yrs., 
5 employees 62 yrs., 
3 employees 61 yrs., 
8 employees 60 yrs., 



7 employees 59 yrs., 
23 employees 58 yrs., 
20 employees 57 yrs., 
27 employees 56 yrs., 



42 employees 54 yrs. 
39 employees 53 yrs. 
53 employees 52 yrs. 
93 employees 51 yrs. 



41 employees 55 yrs., 124 employees 50 yrs. 



Pennsylvania employees are blessed with longevity, for it 
has in active service, 4,717 employees who are between the 
ages of 60 and 70. The Carlisle tables of mortality show the 
expectancy of a man 21 years of age to be 40.75 years; but 
the Pennsylvania Eailroad has 4,015 employees who exceed 
this. The following figures show the employees between 60 

and TO years: 

No. of 
Employees 
702 
607 
637 
570 
540 



Age 
60 
61 
62 
63 
64 





No. of 


Age 


Employees 


65 


455 


66 


347 


67 


325 


68 


318 


69 


216 



There were living in 1912 eight Pennsylvania Eailroad em- 
ployees who are over ninety years of age, all of them receiv- 
ing regular pension payments from the company. 





WHAT RAILROADS 
ARE DOING 

PENNSYLVANIA LINES 

MR. JOHN W. RENNKR 

Secretary Pension Department, Pennsylvania Lines 



The request for information as to the pension system in 
effect on the Pennsylvania System Lines contained two spe- 
cific inquiries: first, as to pensions for those retired from 
service on account of age or incapacity; and, second, as to 
provision for the maintenance of dependents of deceased 
employees. 

The analogy between the railway service and church work 
may be considered as fairly close in the case of those in either 
line of work remaining in active service until reaching a 
pensionable age; for employees in either service have as a 
rule given all, or a large proportion of their working years to 
the service. But there is no such analogy in the matter of 
providing for dependents of the deceased. In railway work, 
only the employee himself performs any service for his em- 
ployer, and it is therefore but fair that the employee should 
bear the expense of insurance for his family, at least so far 
as death from natural causes is concerned. In church work, 
the pastor's family is usually as actively engaged as is the 
paid minister, and it would seem entirely proper that the 
employer, the Church, should make provision for their main- 
tenance in case of the death of the head of the family. 

In its arrangements for pension and relief payments, the 
practice of the Pennsylvania System has been very largely 
followed by other railroads, and while the details of the appli- 
cation of the principles involved liave varied more or less on 
the several roads, to suit the conditions there existing, the 
basis adopted on the Pennsylvania System may be taken as 
fairly typical of what the railroads are doing. 

Many other industries, public service utilities, corpora- 

233 



23i THE RETIEED MINISTER 

tions, banks, etc., have pension and relief j^lans suited to their 
own conditions and needs. 

First, the PENSION PLAN of the Pennsylvania System 
Lines. 

All employees who attain the age of seventy years, and those 
who may be incapacitated upon or after attaining the age 
of sixty-five years, are retired from active service, and paid 
a monthly pension allowance. This pension payment is 
based on the plan of allowing annually for each year of 
service, one per cent of the average wages received during the 
ten years last preceding retirement. Thus, a man who en- 
tered the service at twenty years of age, and was retired at 
seventy, would receive 50 per cent of his average pay for the 
ten year period immediately preceding his retirement. 

For the calendar year 1913, the Pennsylvania System Lines 
paid out in pensions under this plan a total of $1,165,996.33, 
and had on the pension roll at the close of the year 2,846 ex- 
employees who were seventy years of age or older, and 1,129, 
between the ages of sixty-five and seventy — a total of 3,975 
pensioners. The average pension paid during that year, 
therefore, was $294 a year, or $24.50 a month. Inasmuch, 
however, as the length of service was in some cases as low as 
from fifteen to tAventy years, ranging from that to 55 years, 
and as some employees had earned comparatively little wages 
in the ten years next preceding retirement, it is apparent 
that the average payment to those with a full term of service 
is very much above $294. 

Since the inauguration of the plan^ January 1, 1900, to 
September 1, 1914, there has been ]^aid in pension allowances 
a total of $10,342,092.99, to a total of 8,293 retired employees. 
Of these 4,060 have died during this period, leaving on the 
pension roll on September 1, 1914, 4,233 retired employees. 

This pension list is customarily referred to as the "Roll of 
Honor,^^ and each month a bulletin is published giving the 
names, occupation and length of service of all who were 
retired in that month, with a biographical sketch of those 
with a service of fifty years or more. 

Second, the RELIEF DEPARTMENT of the Pennsyl- 
vania System Lines, that is, the provision made for financial 
assistance to families of deceased employees, and to employees 
incapacitated through sickness or injury. 



PENNSYLVANIA LINES 235 

This department was inaugurated on the Eastern lines in 
1886 and on the Western lines in 1889. Prior to that time, 
when an em2:)loyee died, or was seriously incapacitated, a sub- 
scription paper was circulated among his fellow employees, 
and each suljscribed what he felt like giving, the company 
frequently supplementing this by making a further contribu- 
tion, particularly in cases where the disability or death re- 
sulted from injury received in the service. To replace this 
uncertain and unsatisfactory plan, the company organized 
and has since maintained, a "Voluntary Relief Department," 
into which those employees who desire to become members 
pay monthly a contribution based on the benefits which they 
elect to receive for disability or death, the company contribut- 
ing the entire cost of operation, including the salaries of the 
staff of medical and supervising officers, and making up any 
deficits that may arise through the operation of the fund, 
which is operated and disbursed jointly by a committee or 
board consisting of representatives, respectively, of the com- 
pany and the employee members, each having equal represen- 
tation on the committee of management. 

The maximum class of membership which may be taken by 
any employee is governed by his monthly rate of pay, and the 
class of membership taken by each determines tlie rate of 
benefit payments to be made on account of the disability or 
death of the member. The following table exhibits the 
amounts of the contributions and benefits of the several 

classes : 

1st 2d 3d 4th 5th 

Class Class Class Class Class 
Highest monthly pay over 

for each class $40.00 $60.00 $80.00 $100.00 $100.00 

Rate of contribution 

per month 75 1.50 2.50 3.00 3.75 

Disablement benefits, 
per day: 

First year 50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 

After first year 25 .50 .75 1.00 1.25 

Payments in the event 

of death $250.00 $500.00 $750.00 $1,000.00 $1,250.00 

In addition, any member in insurable liealth may obtain 
additional death benefits, in multiples of $250, until the total 
death benefit is double the normal death ])eiiefit as shown in 



23G 



THE EETIEED MUSTISTER 



the above table, the additional contribution to be made on this 
account being graded according to the class taken and the 
age of the member at the date the additional death benefit is 
secured. Thus the maximum death benefit that can be taken 
by an employee whose compensation is over $100 per month 
is $2,500, the contribution for which, up to forty-five years 
of age, is $5.25 a month for death benefit and accident and 
health insurance. 

Employees have very generally availed themselves of mem- 
bership in this provident feature of the service, especially in 
those branches of the service where the employment is prac- 
tically permanent or the risk of health or accident greatest. 
On June 30th of this year, 81.1 per cent of the employees of 
the lines west of Pittsburgh were members of the Relief De- 
partment. On the S3'stem lines, east and west of Pittsburgh, 
there are now about 155,000 employees with membership in 
the Relief Department. 

During the year 1913, the contributions of members to this 
fund totaled $2,881,307.29, and this large sum w^as supple- 
mented by contributions of the companies aggregating $408,- 
895.82, which, with $143,008.55 interest on surplus funds, 
made the total receipts for the year $3,433,211.(56. Out of 
this fund benefits were paid as follows : 

Death benefits to beneficiaries of deceased em- 
ployees $855,331 . 91 

Disablement benefits to members 1,818,601.78 

Superannuation benefits to retired employees in 
addition to pension, on lines east of Pittsburgh 
only 98,153.19 

Total benefits paid to members and their benefi- 
ciaries $2,772,086 . 88 

Operating expenses paid by the companies 408,895.82 



There being no operating cost to the insured, and no 
profits to be paid to the insurer, and as the accumulation of 
a large reserve is not necessary (the companies, as stated 
above, making up any deficit), it is apparent that the rates of 
contribution to this fund bring greater returns in disablement 
and death benefits to the company's employees than could be 
obtained in any other way from a like exj^enditure. 

Reverting again to the pension plan, a few of the rules 



PENNSYLVANIA LINES * 237 

adopted by railroads generally in the administration of these 
funds should be mentioned. To prevent the payment of 
pensions to men of very short service^ it is necessary to 
establish an age beyond which no new employees will be taken 
into the service, or a minimum length of service after which 
a pension will be paid, and some roads have both require- 
ments. On the Pennsylvania System, the maximum age 
for taking new employees into the service has been fixed at 
45 years. All employees reaching the age of 70 years are 
retired regardless of their length of service, and pensioned. 
Those incapacitated between the ages of 65 and 70 are pen- 
sioned only after 30 years^ service, it being understood that 
most of the employees are members of the Relief Fund, their 
disability benefits carrying them to pension age if incapa- 
citated. Some roads have fixed the maximum age for enter- 
ing the service as low as 35 years, some as high as 50, but the 
majority of them have adopted 45 years. The number of 
years^ service after which a pension is paid for age or inca- 
pacity varies on the difi'erent roads from 10 years to 30 years. 
One road has made it optional with its employees to retire 
at the age of 60, and a few others at 65, whether they be in- 
capacitated or not, if they have been in the service a specified 
number of years. 

The suggestion is often heard that after a certain number 
of years of service, say thirty-five or forty, an employee should 
be given a pension if he desires to retire from active service. 
This is frequently done in European countries, where the 
pension funds are provided by joint contributions of the men 
and their employers, but so far the rule has not been adopted 
by any railroad in this country, where the pension funds are 
provided entirely by the employer. 

It has been the aim in this paper to give such information 
concerning the retirement and relief plans of the Pennsyl- 
vania System as might be of assistance in planning similar 
features in the work of the Church. The great mass of detail 
involved in the formulation of equitable rules of administra- 
tion can well be omitted from consideration until the general 
principles have been determined, and, accordingly, only these 
general principles have been here considered. If further study 
of the subject leads you to desire information as to the work- 
ing rules and regulations of these departments of railway serv- 



238 



THE EETIKED MINISTER 



ice, it will be gladly furnished in such detail as may be prac- 
ticable. 

In closing I quote from an address made some time ago on 
the subject of Pensions, before a convention of the Railroad 
Young Men's Christian Association, by Mr. John Hurst, a 
member of my official staff, as follows : 

"Throughout all the centuries men have dreamed of the 
Brotherhood of Man. In a competitive and commercial age 
like this, when the struggle in every line of endeavor grows 
more intense from year to year, the ideal of a human brother- 
hood such as Christ lived and preached, and such as Tenny- 
son sings of in his ^Locksley Hall', seems very far away. But 
step by step, slow, toilsome steps at times it is true, we are 
advancing in the direction of a wider recognition of the rights 
of man. One step is the pension scheme, which has in 
it this suj^remely Christ-like feature: it takes care of a man 
when he is too old or infirm to take care of himself." 

Joiix \Y. Renner. 

Pennsylvania Station, Pittsburgh, Pa. 





RAILROAD PENSION SYSTEMS 
Courtesy op Dr. W. H. Foctlkes 






COMPANY 


Pension 

Fund 

Established 


Age of Reitrement 


Years of 

Service 

Required 


Average 
Yearly 




\'oluntary Compulsory 


Pension 


B. &0 


1884 
1900 
1900 
1902 
1902 
1903 
1903 
1907 
1910 
1910 


65 
65 
65 
65 
60 
65 
65 
65 


70 
70 
70 
70 
70 
70 
70 

70 
70 


10 
20 
30 
30 
25 
20 
20 
15 
20 
10 


$235.00 


C.&N.W 

Penna 

Phila. &R 


251.00 
241.00 
362 . 00 


D., L. & W 


275.00 


So. Pac 

Tnion Pac 

Santa Fe 

Omaha 

N. Y. Cent 


3i4.66 
255.00 

3i2'66 



The pension is generally figured as 1*^^ of the average monthly wages for the last 10 years for each 
year of service. Illustration: If the average wages were SlOO, and the service 30 years, the pension 
would be S30 a month. 

Eighteen other raikoads have pension systems, all of them non-contributory, that is, the company 
pays all. 

The latest — the Boston & Maine — is contributory, half and half; the men pay half and the com- 
pany pays half. 

Nearly all of the railroads have benefit associations, to which employees contribute; most of them 
have a relief department also. 



NORTHWESTERN LINES 239 

CHICAGO & NORTHWESTERN RAILWAY COMPANY 

Employees who have attained the age of seventy years, and 
who have been twenty years in the service shall be retired 
and pensioned, except executive officers appointed by the 
Board of Directors. Employees who have been twenty or 
more years in the service, and who have become permanently 
disabled, may be retired and pensioned at any time. Length 
of service is computed from the date of entry into the service 
to the date of retirement, and the forcible retirement of em- 
ployees becomes effective on the first day of the calendar 
month following their seventieth birthday. 

The monthly pension allowance is determined on the fol- 
lowing basis: For each year of service, one per cent of the 
average regular monthly pay for the ten years next preceding 
retirement; provided, that the minimum amount shall be $12 
per month. The annual pension disbursement cannot exceed 
two hundred thousand dollars, and should it do so, a rate 
is established proportionately reducing all allowances. 

An example : If the average monthly pay for the last ten 
(10) 3^ears of a man's service with the company has been sixty 
dollars per month, one per cent of the monthly pay would be 
sixty (60) cents; and if he has served the company twenty 
(20) years his pension would be twenty (20) times sixty (60) 
cents, or twelve dollars per month, and each additional year 
of service would add one (1) per cent of his monthly pay. 

Length of service alone does not constitute the basis for 
a pension. Age and length of service are combined. The 
candidate for a pension not only must have served the com- 
pany at least twenty (20) years, but he must have arrived at 
a pensionable age. Pension allowances are paid monthly, 
until the death of the beneficiary; provided, however, that 
the company may withhold its stipend in case of gross mis- 
conduct. The acceptance of a pension does not debar any 
retired employee from engaging in any other business which 
is not prejudicial to the interests of the company, but he 
cannot reenter its service. The pension system confers no 
legal claim to a pension allowance. 

A Pension Board, composed of five officers of the company, 
appointed by the Board of Directors, serves under the direc- 
tion of the President. 



2i0 



THE EETIEED MIXISTEE 



IXDUSTEIAL PEXSIOX SYSTEMS 

Courtesy of Dr. W. H. Foulkes 



COMPANY 






4 i 



o F 



__ — !3'" sacoo 



American Express 1875 

Wells Fargo Co 1903 

Procter & Gamble 1904 



Pitt Coal Co 11907 

International Harvester Co. 1908 



Morris &, Co . 



Armour & Co . 
U.S. Steel... 



American Telegraph & Tele- 
phone Co 



1909 

1911 
1911 

1912 



60(?) 
60 

65 

55 

60 
60 

50-55 



60(?) 
70 

70 



65 

70 

55-60 



o cr 



px.H 



eg 



30-20 



hour's wages 
every 4 weeks — 
3So per month 



3% of wages 



3% of wages 



One half average pay for 
last 10 years; maxi- 
mum, $500 

1^ average pay last 10 
yeare for each year of 
service 

75% average pay last 2 
years 

SIO per month 

l^c average pay last 10 
years for each year of 
service. Minimum, 
$18; maximum, 8100 
per month 

2% of last salary for each 
year of service. Maxi- 
mum, $5,000 

2% of last salarj" for each 
year of ser\-ice 

1% average pay last 10 
years for each year's 
ser%ace. Minimum, 
$12; maximum, $100 

1% average pay last 10 
years for each year's 
service. Minimum, 
$20 



AGED AXD DISABLED PEIXTEES 

The International Typographical Union has 60,000 mem- 
bers, composed of printers, mailers, news^^aper writers, etc. 

It maintains in Colorado Springs, Colo., the Union Print- 
ers' Home and Tuberculosis Sanatorium, where it cares for 
aged and disabled members, and especially provides for the 
treatment of those members who are afflicted with tuberculosis. 

It pays to those Avho have reached the age of sixty years 
and have been members for twenty years or more, and who 
are unable to earn a living at the trade, a pension of $5 
per week, $260 per year. It also pays burial benefits. 

It maintains a school for the technical instruction of ap- 
prentices and printers, which can be taken advantage of with- 
out interference with the regular work and at a small cost. 




WHAT CORPORA- 
TIONS ARE DOING 

MR. JOHN O. PEW 

President and General Manager 
Youngstown Iron and Steel Company 



The "pension habit" is growing. Governments are pen- 
sioning their veterans and corporations are rewarding their 
employees for long and faithful services. Soldiers and 
sailors retire on three-quarters pay. Nearly everybody, it 
would seem, lives and works in the blessed hope of a "com- 
fortable support" upon retirement from active work ; and 
while humanitarian reasons may have much force in bring- 
ing about pensions for aged and faithful workers, it ought 
to be said that there are other important reasons which are 
inducing corporations to take care of their employees in old 
age. The slogan of this materialistic age is "Efficiency" — 
how to get the greatest amount of work out of a plant or 
a worker with the greatest amount of profit. There are 
"efficiency experts" whose sole business it is to show cor- 
porations how greater efficiency can be secured by new 
systems of management, new machinery, the standardization 
of supplies, the decrease of motions in the performance of a 
given task. Even the bishops are holding efficiency conven- 
tions in their Episcopal Areas in order to get better results 
out of the efforts of preachers and laymen — to make them 
more "efficient" for the profit of the Church and the kingdom. 

Corporations are fincting out that ^vhen faithful servants 
can look forward to a pension in old age, they are more con- 
tented in their work, have a more personal interest in the 
business, and prefer to stay on their job and give their best 
to the work to whicli they have l)een assigned. They become 
more "efficient." One great reason why corporations are 
giving old age pensions is because employees become more 
efficient, their earning power becomes greater, and the money 
in vested in ])onsions l)rings splendid returns. 

241 



242 



THE EETIRED MINISTER 



American Telephone Company 

The subsidiary companies of the American Telephone and 
Telegraph Conipan}' are pensioning their 175,000 employees, 
about 130,000 of whom are in the employ of the Bell Tele- 
phone Company. The total yearly pay of the whole group 
is about $115,000,000, about $80,000,000 being paid out 
by the Bell Company alone. A fund of $10,000,000 has been 
provided, made available on January 1, 1913, for pensions, 
sick benefits and life and accident insurance. This fund 
will be made good from year to year through appropriations 
by the various subsidiary companies. Employees will not he 
called upon to contribute one cent. The pension plan with 
the insurance and disability plan provides for a pension of 
one per cent per annum of the annual average pay during 
the ten years next preceding retirement, multiplied by the 
number of years of service. For instance, a man with thirty 
years of service belli nd him would receive a pension equal 
to thirty per cent of the average amount earned by him dur- 
ing the ten years preceding his application for the benefit. 
Disability during the performance of duty will be met with 
full pay for thirteen weeks; and half pay until the emplo3'ee 
is able to earn a livelihood, the time not to exceed six years, 
Disability not in the performance of duty will be met with 
a graduated compensation, depending uj^on length of service. 
Employees having relatives depending upon them will be 
entitled to insurance against death by accident, occurring in 
and due to the performance of work for the companies, in 
the sum of three years' wages not to exceed a total amount 
of $5,000. All employees having relatives dependent upon 
them, and who have been five years in the service, will be 
entitled to an insurance against death in a sum equal to six 
months' wages, when the term of employment has been from 
five to ten years. When the term of employment has been 
ten years or more, the insurance paid will be one year's wages, 
the maximum paid being $2,000. With these plans to take 
care of their employees in their old age, these companies 
show a determination to reward faithful service and at the 
same time secure greater ^'efficiency." 

Armour & Company 
Armour & Co., the great packing house, has established a 



COKPORATION PENSIONS 243 

pension fund for the benefit of its 15,000 employees througli- 
out tlie United States. Ogden Armour, the head of the com- 
pany, gave a million dollars to this pension fund. The fund 
is created for the benefit of salaried employees who have 
reached the age of from fifty to sixty-five and who have been 
employed twenty years or more in the service of the company. 
Employees must pay into the fund three per cent of their 
salaries annually. Employees on retirement receive two per 
cent of the salary paid them at the time of their retirement 
for each year of service — that is, an employee having served 
twenty-five years will receive during every year of his retire- 
ment fifty per cent of the salary received by him when 
retired. Such employee receiving a salary of $2,000 at 
retirement will receive after retirement a pension of $1,000 
per year. Women employees are eligible to the jDcnsion fund ; 
but a clause provides that upon marriage they are to receive 
back all the moneys they have paid in. All employees who 
leave the service will receive back the amounts paid in. Pen- 
sioned employees may engage in other business or accept 
other employment so long as it is not of the same character 
as that conducted by Armour & Co. 

United States Steel Corporation 

For a number of years the United States Steel Corporation 
has been pensioning its employees. The first year of opera- 
tion of the pension plan showed 1,606 beneficiaries. $12,000,- 
000 has been set aside for the pension fund. During the 
first year, the average age of those pensioned was sixty-six; 
the average years of service were forty; and the average 
monthly pension $20.75. 

What need I say more of the pension funds of great cor- 
porations ! Time would fail me to tell what the Chicago 
Tribune, The First National Bank of Chicago, The Inter- 
national Typographical Union, The Old Merchants Relief 
Fund of Philadelphia, The First National Bank of New 
York, the Carnegie Foundation and other institutions are 
doing for their pensioners. All recognize not only the pen- 
sioners' need of a pension but their need of an efficient 
worker. While the outlay is great they are more than com- 
pensated by increased faithfulness and the fine feeling of 
fraternity which is produced by the pension system. 



2ii THE EETIRED MINISTER 

AVhat corporations are doing, the Chnrch must do, not as 
charity Ijut as an investment for "efficiency."' But the 
Church should be moved by a*still greater motive. An irresist- 
ible law, the higher law of the eternally ju-'^t, compels the 
Church to take care of its veteran workers in their old age. 

Joiix 0. Pew. 

Youngstown, Ohio. 



THE FIRST XATIOXAL BAXK, CHICAGO 

The First Xational Bank of Chicago was a pioneer in 
pensions. The Bank Pension Fund was established in 1899. 

The fund is known as "The Bank Pension Fund." It was 
optional with officers and clerks whether they should enter 
the fund at its inception, but all subsequent employees are 
required to enter the fund, if eighteen years of age or over, 
and to pass a medical examination prior to such entry. 

The officers and employees contribute to the fund three per 
cent of their salaries, payable monthly and deducted from 
the monthly pay. Xo clerk is allowed to marry on a salary of 
less than $1,000 per year, without the consent of the bank, 
under penalty of dismissal and forfeiture of his rights to 
the fund. In case of voluntary resignation or dismissal all 
payments into the funds are returned without interest. As a 
general rule no pension is granted unless the officer or em- 
ployee shall have completed not less than fifteen years of 
service and attained the age of sixty years. If an officer or 
employee shall die prior to fifteen years^ service and no pen- 
sion is granted, the amount contributed is returned to his legal 
representative with interest at four per cent. On attaining 
the age of sixty years and having fifteen years' service a 
member may retire on a pension, or may be required to retire ; 
en attaining sixty-five years he shall retire, unless specially 
requested to remain. An officer or employee who before at- 
taining the age of sixty years shall be incapacitated for work 
by ill-health or affliction shall be permitted to retire and take 
the benefits provided. Officers and employees whose term of 
service shall have been under twenty-five years shall not be 
entitled to a pension for a longer time than their term of 
service; if such service has reached twent3^-five years or more 
thev shall be entitled to such pension for life. 



BANK PENSIONS 



245 



The amount of pension allowed officers or employees shall 
be on the basis of one fiftieth of their salary at date of retire- 
ment for each year of service ; thus if they have fifteen years 
of service to their credit, they will receive fifteen-fiftieths of 
their salary, if tw^enty-five years, twenty-five fiftieths, or one 
half. The maximum pension is subject to the following 
limitations: In no case shall it exceed thirty-five fiftieths 
of their salary. On a salary not exceeding $10,000, it shall 
not exceed $4,000. On a salary not exceeding $15,000, it 
shall not exceed $5,000. On a salary exceeding $15,000, it 
shall not exceed $6,000. If a clerk enter the service of the 
bank prior to eighteen years of age his term of service shall 
commence at the date of his first payment to the fund at 
eighteen years of age. The widow of a deceased officer or 
employee shall be entitled to receive half the amount to which 
her husband would have been entitled; but she shall not 
receive a pension for a longer period than her husband's term 
of service. The pension shall cease if she remarries. At her 
death, if she leaves any children her pension shall be paid to 
them or to trustees for them until the youngest child shall 
reach the age of eighteen years; each child's interest to cease 
as he or she reaches that age or marries prior to that age. 

The funds are invested by the bank's officers. The policy 
of the bank has been to build up a strong fund. A contribu- 
tion of $25,000 was made at the beginning and subsequent 
contributions have averaged about six per cent of the salary 
total. The interest earnings have so far met all pension re- 
quirements and left a surplus of profit to the fund. There 
are no expenses for administration. The membership of the 
fund and pensioners have been as follows : 





Members 


Pensioners 




Members 


Pensioners 


1899 


243 





1907 


524 


15 


1900 


307 


4 


1908 


541 


18 


1901 


335 


8 


1909 


548 


17 


1902 


417 


10 


1910 


558 


22 


1903 


430 


10 


1911 


581 


24 


1904 


447 


10 


1912 


607 


27 


1905 


474 


13 


1913 


646 


30 


1906 


500 


13 









If an officer or onij^tloyee sliall l)e in receipt of a j^eiision at 
i1i(^ time of his deatli, tlic period foi' wliicli ho shall have 



246 THE EETIEED MINISTEB 

received a pension shall be deducted from tiie period during 
which a pension shall be paid to his widow. The children 
of a deceased ollicer or employee whose wife died before him 
shall receive one half of the pension to which he would have 
been entitled, to l)e divided among them. 

It would be difficult to estimate the value of the Bank Pen- 
sion Fund to the employee. The sense of security which it 
affords, taking the place of worry for the future, for the 
employee's old age and for the family which survives him, 
should he be taken away or incapacitated, is fully appreciated. 
The mental strain is thus relieved, and greater energy and 
efficiency is encouraged. The older men are more loth to 
leave and accept other positions, and are generally better 
satisfied. Employees are permitted to purchase stock of The 
First National Bank and have it carried for them by the fund, 
by paying $10 per share down and $5 per share per month. 

These pension features and the provisions for the comfort, 
amusement and welfare of employees develop a spirit of 
fidelity and fraternity which brings results in efficiency and 
loyalty to the bank. 

CAEXEGIE FOUNDATION FOR TEACHERS 

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teach- 
ing has an endo^vment of $15,000,000 to provide retiring 
allowances for teachers and officers of higher educational insti- 
tutions, and distributed $.2,936,927 during the first eight 
years. 

The 1913 report showed that $579,440 was distributed to 
professors and $80,949 to their widows; a total of $660,389. 

The number of new allowances was thirty-three, making 
the total allowances now in force 403. The average annual 
payment to pensioners was $1,703. 

COLLEGE PENSIONS— THE CARNEGIE FUND 
Courtesy of Dr. W, H. Foulkes 

Includes seventy-two colleges and universities. 
Retirement Age: 65. 

Service Required: 15 years as professor, or 25 years as instructor and professor. 
Incapacity: After 25 years as professor, or 30 years as instructor and professor. 
Pension: One half average salary last five years, plus S400. Widow receive one half of what 
would be her husband's allowance. 

Average Retirement Pension for 1912: $1,678.66. 

Average Widows' Pension for 1912: $912.11. 

Average Age of Retirement: 69, 70, 71 in different yeara. 




RETIREMENT OF 
TEACHERS 

IN NEW YORK CITY 

DR. CHARLES S. HART WELL, M.A. 

Eastern District High School 



The Board of Eetirement for teachers in Xew York City 
was first organized July 10, 1905. It consists of the President 
of tlie Board of Education, the chairmen of the Committee on 
Elementary Schools and on High Schools, the City Superin- 
tendent and three members selected from the principals and 
teachers of the public day schools. The teacher members are 
elected for three years by representatives of the teachers 
elected by each district in the city. 

The Retirement law set aside eight hundred thousand 
dollars, ($800,000) standing to the credit of the teachers^ 
fund on December 31, 1904, as a permanent fund, the prin- 
cipal of which should not be encroached upon. To this is 
added annually "five per cent of all excise moneys or license 
fees belonging to the City of New York and derived or 
received by any commissioner of excise or public officer from 
the granting of licenses or permission to sell strong or spirit- 
uous liquors, ale, wine or beer in the city of New York, under 
the provisions of any law of this state authorizing the grant- 
ing of such license or permission.'^ 

To the amount of thirty dollars in one year, for teachers 
and principals, and forty dollars, for supervising officials, the 
law authorizes the deduction of one per cent from the salaries 
of all from the city superintendent to the new teacher enter- 
ing the system. This is added to the Eetirement Fund. 

All money deducted from salaries of teachers because of 
unexcused absences also becomes a part of this fund. Dona- 
tions, legacies and bequests are placed in the fund. 

On recommendation of the Board of Retirement the Board 
of Education has power to retire at the beginning of each 
semester, by a two-thirds vote of all its members, any member 
of the teaching or supervising staff, who may apply for retire- 

247 



248 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

ment, provided he or she has been engaged in teaching or in 
school or college supervision for a period aggregating thirty 
years, fifteen of which shall have been in some of the institu- 
tions of New York City. The Board of Education may retire 
any member of the teaching or supervising staff who has 
reached the age of sixty-five years. 

The amount to be paid upon such retirement, whether 
voluntary or otherwise, shall be not less than one half the 
annual salary paid to such person at the time of retirement; 
but, except in the case of professors of the Normal College, 
shall not exceed, in the case of a teacher or principal, the sum 
of fifteen hundred dollars per annum, and in the case of a 
supervising official, two thousand dollars per annum. In no 
case shall the amount be less than six hundred dollars per 
annum. Any person retired after twenty years of service, but 
with less than thirty years of service shall receive an annuity 
which bears the same ratio to the annuity provided for on 
retirement after thirty years of service as the total number of 
years of service of said person bears to thirty years. These 
annuities, like salaries, are paid in monthly instalments. 

The number of persons retired is limited in any one year, 
so that the entire amount of the annuities to be paid for that 
year shall not be in excess of the amount of the retirement 
fund applicable to the payment of annuities for that year. 

Eetired persons are eligible to reappointment in the schools. 

Principal Lyman A. Best of Brooklyn, N. Y., who has 
been Secretary of the Board of Retirement since its organ- 
ization in 1905, has issued a series of annual reports of the 
greatest value. For ten years previous to that time there had 
been a teachers' pension fund. 

Between 1895 and 1913 there have been 1927 retirements, 
an average of 107 j)er year; of whom 1,404 were on the rolls 
on July 31, 1913. The number of teachers in New York 
City at the same time was 19,681. 

The total income of the Retirement fund from J 894 to 
1913 was $12,911,703, and the balance on hand on Deceml^er 
31, 1913, was $1,095,255. 

An effort is being made to secure a unification of retirement 
regulations for the various branches of the city service and 
important changes in existing laws are imminent. 

Brooklyn, N. Y. Charles S. Hartwell. 



INDUSTEIAL PENSIONS 



249 



I 



1894- 
1895- 
1896- 
1907- 
1908- 
1909- 
1910- 
1911- 
1913- 



TEACHERS' PENSION FUNDS 

Courtesy of Dr. W. H. Foulkes 

STATES WHICH AUTHORIZE TEACHERS' PENSIONS 

-New York. 

Michigan. 

New Jersey, Ohio. 

■ Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah. 

■ Massachusetts. 

Minnesota, Nebraska, Colorado, Wisconsin. 

— Virginia, Louisiana. 

■ Connecticut, Kansas, Oregon. 

Iowa. 



In seven States all teachers are included: New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Iowa, Rhode Island, 
Maryland, Wisconsin. In two cases all the funds are provided by the State: Maryland, Rhode 
Island. All the others are contributory — the teachers pay part. 



CITY 


Fund 
Estab- 
lished 


Years 

of 
Service 

Re- 
quired 


Age 
Retire- 
ment 


Teachers' 

Contribution 

Per Year 


Yearly Pension 


New York 

Chicago. 

San Francisco .... 

Cincinnati 

New Orleans 

Sacramento 

Memphis 

Indianapolis 

Omaha 

Minneapolis 


1894 

1895 
1897 
1897 
1902 
1905 
1907 
1907 

1909 
1909 


30 

25 
30 
30 
15 
20 
30 
25 

40 
20 


65 

60 
60 


1% of salary — not over 

$30 

$5 to $30 

$12 

$20 

1% of salary 

2% of salary 

1% of salary 

1% or 2% of salary— 

not over $20 

1% of salary 

$5 to $25 


Half pay— $600 to 

$1,500 

$400 

$300 or more 

$300 

Half pay 

Half pay 

About $300 

$15 for each year of 

service — not over $600 

$500 
$16.67 for each year of 
service — not over $500 



The average years of service are thirty. 

The pension varies from $200 to $2,000, or one half of the average salary during the last five years. 

CITIES WHICH HAVE TEACHERS' PENSION FUNDS 

1894 New York, Washington. 

1895 ^Brooklyn, Chicago, Detroit. 

1896 Buffalo. 

1897 Albany, Cincinnati, Providence, San Francisco, Syracuse. 

1898 Charleston. 

1899 Saint Louis. 

1900 Boston, New Orleans. 

1905 —Rochester. 

1906 Troy, Cleveland. 

1907 Philadelphia, Schenectady, Elmira, In- 
dianapolis, Memphis. 

1908 Harrisburg, Springfield, 0., Yon- 

kers, Salt Lake City. 

K.'09 Columbus, Denver, Omaha, 

Milwaukee, Baltimore, 
Saint Paul, Minneapolis. 

1911— — ■ New Haven. 

1 9 12 —Louisville. 

This Is a Partial List Only 
The first teachers' pension bill was passed by the New York State legislature in 1894. 
About 30% of all the public school teachers in the United States are now under pension systems. 
About 15% are non-contributory systems, in which the teachers pay nothing. 
About 17% are mutual benefit associations, in which the teachers pay all. 
About 68% are contributory associations, in which the city pays part and teachers part. 



250 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

"THE PENSION HABIT" 

The Telephone Compaii}^ has followed the fashion in insti- 
tuting a pension system for employees. We are getting quite 
in the pension habit. A great many big business concerns in 
some way share their profits with employees, or bestow re- 
ward for long and faithful service. 

Nearly everybody, it would almost seem, lives and works in 
the happy advance rays of a sunset of "retirement.'^ The 
soldier and sailor are to retire on three quarters pay. Consid- 
ering their troubles, the hello girls ought to be worth as much 
consideration. 

An irresistible law, the higher law of the eternally just, has 
compelled all this. And we have yet seen only the beginning. 

Who would have dreamed of this pension tendency fifty 
years ago? The clergymen did not, as they went out to 
preach righteousness on pitiful pay. And it is noteworthy 
that these very preachers are about the only workers now left 
without adequate pension. The school teacher, the college 
professor, Mr. Carnegie has pensioned. It might be worth 
while for the Church, the richest institution in all the land, 
to do the right thing by her old preachers. 

These men, however, who did so much to bring about this 
new day, are not advancing their claim. 

— The New Yorh Mail. 



TRANSMUTING THE TRUTH INTO GOLD 

Leslie's Weekly is never more pleased than when it renders 
service to the churches, and particularly when such assistance 
is in the line of aid to the old and faithful ministers of the 
Church. In a recent editorial we advocated a better and more 
adequate system of pensioning those who had worn them- 
selves out in the service of the churches. In addition to much 
favorable comment by the religious press, we are glad to note 
that the national board of the Methodist Episcoj)al Church 
is sending the editorial as a leaflet throughout the denomina- 
tion. The secretary of the board, in a personal letter to the 
editor, says, "We greatly appreciate your editorial, and are 
hoping that your message will be transmuted into gold for 
the Veteran Preachers." We hope so, too. 

— Leslie's Weekly, 




OLD-AGE, MOTHERS' 

AND GOVERNMENT 

PENSIONS 

iHE REV. STEDMAN APPLEGATE, D.D, 

New Jersey Conference 



It has long been the custom of Christian nations, in con- 
sideration of past services of government employees, to grant 
an income or pension, to take effect on retirement. It is 
usual to define such pension as being given in consideration 
of past service. This has led to the statement that pensions 
are given by a government, corporation or private employer in 
the nature of deferred pay. While this is true, there is 
another thought that should not be overlooked. The object of 
attaching a pension to a post is not merely to reward past 
service, but to secure continuity of service as well as to enable 
the employer to dispense with the services of an employee 
without hardship to him, should old age or infirmity render 
him inefficient. 

The granting of pensions was first applied to the army and 
navy, and to persons who had become disabled while in the 
military service of their respective countries. With the in- 
crease of national wealth and government responsibilities 
there has come a demand for expert service; and this has 
necessitated the enlarging of the pension system, so that the 
departments through which pensions are dispensed are now 
as follows. Army, Navy, Civil Service and Judicial. 

England has taken the initiative in pensioning the veteran 
citizen — the old man — and now dispenses pensions through 
the civil list as well as through the political and ecclesiastical 
list. The civil list pensions are given in England to the fol- 
lowing classes of persons, on recommendation to the Crown 
by the First Lord of the Treasury : those who may have just 
claims on the royal beneficence by their personal services to 
the Crown, or their performance of duties to the public; 
those who by useful discoveries in science or by attainments 
in literature or art have merited 

251 



gracious consideration. 



252 THE EETIRED MINISTER 

The ecclesiastical pension is granted to bishops, deans, canons, 
and incumbents wlio ma}^ become incapacitated by age or 
infirmity for the discharge of their ecclesiastical duties, such 
pensions to be a charge upon the revenues of the see or cure 
vacated. 

Germany, Italy, Switzerland and a few other countries have 
introduced a system of government insurance which requires 
that an amount proportioned to the individual wage shall be 
paid by the insured person, the government also paying a 
proportionate amount ; thus giving stimulus to the individual, 
and to the government control and general supervision. 
"When from old age, or other causes, it becomes necessary for 
the insured to retire from active service, the government, 
through this system of insurance, provides a yearly allowance 
for the veteran citizen, the old man. 

While the legal enactment for the care of government 
employees is eminently commendalde, it has remained for 
our modern Christian civilization to discover the factors of 
strength, glory and national greatness in the form of the 
noble and loyal citizenship, self-respecting, self-sacrificing 
motherhood, and to grant pensions to old men and mothers. 
These citizens by their thrift and consecrated energy, by their 
noble and heroic sacrifices, and by their united devotion to 
national standards, have contributed to the greatness and 
glory of their nation. Therefore, they are sustained when 
incapacitated for further service, or when overtaken by un- 
toward circumstances over which they have no control, from 
the bounty which they helped to create. 

It is a very pleasing fact to note that our Government 
now grants a pension to dependent motherhood, because of 
a deceased son who may have been the support of such mother. 
The wisdom of many of our State Legislatures in enacting a 
law pensioning widowed motherhood, is highly commendable. 
The wise, the humane, and Christian character of such a 
law, can be seen in the lessening of crime, the introducing 
of a higher morality, and the giving of strength to the State 
and nation. The amount given such a widow is paid by 
the State where she may reside, in proportion to the number 
and age of her children. The child labor law of many States 
also provides that where the labor of a child is necessary to 
the maintenance of the home, the amount of wage the child 



OLD AGE AND MOTHERS' PENSIONS 253 

could earn is paid to the family by the State, and the child is 
kept in school, in training for efficient citizenship. This at 
first was considered as charity; bnt self-respecting and hon- 
orable families were loath to receive such charity, and to 
overcome such embarrassment the money is now provided as 
a scholarship for the child. 

Another pleasing feature in connection with the pension 
idea is that many of the States and cities of our Republic 
recognize the necessity and value of the work of education 
and public instruction and are retiring public teachers on a 
pension. 

Much might be said in commendation of various public 
service institutions which are creating retirement funds for 
faithful employees. It would seem that an awakened con- 
science is recognizing the worth of the Master's statement 
over nineteen centuries ago, that "the laborer is worthy of 
his hire'' and that the hire is more than the daily wages. 

In introducing these humane conditions the ethics and 
altruism of Jesus Christ are very prominent. While the com- 
mendable conditions of our social system are constantly as- 
suming new proportions, it is a lamentable fact that the 
Church of Jesus Christ, an institution of no mean propor- 
tion, prospering under the leadership of men who have in 
their manhood, the elements of courage, heroism and self- 
sacrifice and who are faithfully presenting the economic, 
social, and spiritual teachings of Jesus Christ, has failed to 
provide a reasonable average support for the active min- 
ister, and a worthy amount for the Retired Veteran. 

The granting of pensions by governments, corporations 
and private individuals, is based upon the character and 
relationship of the pensioned to society or governments. If 
this principle of reward of position and merit Avere applied to 
the character and value of church work, and the relationship 
sustained to such work by the faithful pastor and preacher, 
as it is applied to society and its workers, there would not 
be one poorly paid minister or one veteran without a reason- 
able pension; indeed, if the scriptural injunction to steward- 
ship were obeyed, there would be no need of mentioning, 
much less of pleading for, such a worthy cause. 

The AVord of God is rich in promises to the man who meets 
the obligation of stewardship ; Proverbs 3. 9, 10, "Honor the 



254 THE EETIEED MINISTEE 

Lord with thy substance, and with the first-fruits of all thine 
increase, so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy 
presses shall burst out with new wine.'^ In Malachi 3. 10, 11, 
we have a command, with a promised blessing : "Bring ye all 
the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in 
mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of 
hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and 
pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough 
to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, 
and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither 
shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith 
the Lord of hosts.'* 

Christianity repudiates the pagan doctrine of ownership 
and recognizes possession as the token of confidence on the 
part of the divine owner. Stewardship is not a natural 
human conception; the unaided human instinct will not dis- 
cover it. The recognition of stewardship marks the suprem- 
acy of the spiritual man. The divine ownership of the land 
was recognized l)y the Israelites, based upon the statement 
of God's Word, "The land shall not be sold forever: for the 
land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me" 
(Leviticus 25. 23). As an acknowledgment of divine o^vner- 
ship, a tenth of the product of the soil was set aside to main- 
tain the worship of Jehovah. The Jews were also required to 
tithe their annual increase in order to meet the expense of 
those religious and social festivals whose purpose was to exalt 
patriotism and to maintain friendship among the people, as 
well as to care for the poor. When Christians learn that "the 
earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof," ingrained hu- 
man selfishness will disappear, and instead there will be the 
outfiow of human gratitude, love and s}Tnpathy, and a ready 
response to tiie sense of obligation. Then God's Church and 
ministry will be sustained according to the divine plan, not 
as a charity, not as a pension, but as a divinely appointed 
support, not from the people but from God, whose portion is 
in their hands. 

The Church a Social Asset 

There are some who harp on the inefficiency of the Church, 
but such people do it ignorantly, and therefore may obtain 
mercy. The educating of the conscience and the improving 



OLD AGE AND MOTHEES' PENSIONS 255 

of the morals, which is the work of the Church, with her 
teaching of truth respecting God and man, sin and righteous- 
ness, life and death, heaven and hell, are responsible for our 
beautiful towns, with their excellent moral tone; Avhich else 
would be hotbeds of vice and crime. Church members are not 
often criminals; neither are all non-church-going people crim- 
inals, but the vast majority of such come from the latter 
class. Every person in a community profits by the presence 
of the church in that community. 

We are told that crime costs the nation more than seven 
hundred million dollars each year. Without the Church of 
Jesus Christ, this would be multiplied many times. The 
Church not only curbs crime, protects society, checks dis- 
order and wards off barbarism, but it nurtures childhood, 
redeems men from sin, and inspires them with lofty purposes 
and high ideals. She preaches the goodness of God and the 
brotherhood of man. 

In many communities the Church has been living largely as 
a charity. The consecrated preacher, too modest to plead 
his own cause and too self-sacrificing to allow other interests 
not to appear prominent, has taken an insufficient stipend 
for the generous services bestowed, and has made a charitable 
donation to churches of the balance that was due him. 0, 
that the eyes of the laymen might be opened, and that they 
might see that Christ^s honor is at stake and that the first obli- 
gation is to God the giver ! The individual, the Church, or 
the nation lacking this element of honor will not long con- 
tinue to prosper. 0, that our people might see the horsemen 
and chariots of God who have fought their battles for them 
amid trouble and sorrow, whose great victories for temporal 
prosperity, home and heaven have been ushered in by these 
battalions of God ! Then the laborer would be considered 
worthy of his hire, and the mouth of the ox that treadeth out 
the corn would be unmuzzled; young men would be cheered 
and inspired in their labors, old men would be comforted, 
widowhood would be sustained, and God^s Church would be 
eminently successful in her varied labors for saving men. 

Stedman Applegate. 

Ocean Grove, N. J. 



256 



THE RETIRED MINISTER 



ILLIN^OIS PENSIONS MOTHERS 

The Illinois law provides for the partial support of moth- 
ers with children under fourteen years of age. Any mother 
who is a citizen of the United States, who has resided in 
the county for three years, whose husband is dead, or whose 
husl)and has become permanently incapacitated for work, is 
entitled to the benefits of the law for her children upon com- 
plying with its requirements. The assistance allowed to each 
mother cannot exceed $15 a month where there is but one 
chikl, and shall never exceed $50 a month for one family. 
The pensions are awarded by action of the Juvenile Court, 
attached to which is a ]3ension department created for the 
purpose of investigating applicants. 



PENSIONING MOTHERS IN OHIO 

More than six hundred applications have been made for 
pensions under the Mothers' Pension Act of Ohio. A special 
tax levy is made. In Hamilton County (Cincinnati) the 
commissioners recently appropriated $60,000 to be used for 
these pensions. Those eligible for pensions are ^'women 
whose husbands are dead, imprisoned, permanently disahled 
for work by reason of mental or physical infirmity, and de- 
serted women when the desertion has extended over. a period 
of three years." The women must present a clean moral 
record, and give evidence of the school attendance of their 
children and of actual poverty. They must have been resi- 
dents of the county for at least two years, and, as bene- 
ficiaries, must not perform labor outside of their homes, 
except with the consent of the court. The maximum allow- 
ance amounts to $15 a month for a woman with one child, 
and $7 a month each for other children. 



OLD-AGE PENSIONS 

Editoeial^ Philadelphia Ledgek 
Whatever opinion one may hold as to the economic effect of 
the various forms of old-age pensions which are in operation 
in the world, whether voluntary or as part of governmental 
systems, the subject is one which is commanding an increas- 
ing^ attention at the hands of legislators and students of social 
The association of the subject with the extreme pro- 



science. 



OLD AGE PENSIOKS 257 

grams of socialism has tended to divert the interest of many 
who would otherwise give the problem the study which 
its importance deserves, though it is a singular fact that the 
present German law of compulsory insurance, was enacted 
through the influence of Bismarck, who hoped by thus fore- 
stalling the Socialists to check the spread of that party. 

In America the subject has never been seriously considered 
as coming w^ithin the scope of practical or desirable legisla- 
tion. The nearest approach to governmental old-age pen- 
sions is the retirement on part pay of certain officers who have 
given their lives to the public service, but the extension of 
the system to the general civil service has ahvays been 
promptly negatived whenever seriously proposed. On the 
other hand, the system has been applied to a larger extent 
than is generally appreciated by railways and corporations. 

The Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor has lately 
issued a special report on this subject, which sums up not 
only the salient facts about the old-age pension plans in 
operation abroad — not omitting, of course, the system in New 
Zealand, that land of social experiments — but gives the es- 
sential features of the various plans which have more or less 
seriously been suggested. Taking the statistics of Massa- 
chusetts for the purpose of comparison, the compiler of this 
report shows that in a recent year the aggregate expenditures 
by the State, cities and towns and by individuals and corpora- 
tions for charitable purposes and soldiers' relief were $10,- 
948,868, or an average benefaction per capita of $3.90. 

To this computation were added the figures from the census 
of the persons over sixty years of age, the statistics of deaths 
and the expectation of life as computed by insurance actu- 
aries, so that the author of the report was in a position to 
estimate the amount of money that would be required to pay 
old-age pensions in that State. It is declared that the sum 
now expended in charity would pay an annual pension of 
two hundred and sixty dollars to one fourth oi- one fifth of 
the persons in the State sixty-five years of age and over ; aiul 
that as the experience abroad is that not more than one fifth 
of those beyond sixty or sixty-five apply for the old-age pen- 
sions, the feasibility of old-age pensions in Massachusetts is 
thereby established. The assumption is that old-age pensions 
would do awav witli the neccssitv for cliaritv. 



I 




TAVO WORKMEX: LIKENESS— CON^TRAST— REASON 

A Likeness 

Preachers and Bricklayers both have honorable vocations. 

Preachers and Bricklayers both do constructive work. 

Preachers and Brickla3'ers botli earn honest livelihoods. 

Preachers and Bricklayers both support families and uphold 
society. 

A Contrast 

The Preacher The Bricklayer 

Receives an average salary Receives $5 per day, $1,500 
of $G00. per year. 

Requires seven to ten years' Serves a three-year appren- 
preparation. ticeship. 

Buys books costing from Buys tools costing $30. 
$200 to $300 annually. 

Bu3^s working clothes cost- Buys working- clothes costing 
ing from $40 to $60. $20. 

Makes his home a social cen- Regards his home as his 
ter. castle. 

Occupies a movable "tent or Has a fixed home and may 
cottage." own it. 

Is paid irregularly and un- lias an honest lien for his 



" 



certainly. 



258 



f 



TWO WORKMEN" 259 

The Eeason 

The expenses of ministers are necessarily larger than those 
of the majority of an average congregation. 

The parsonage must be in such a condition as to be open 
to all at all times. 

The dress of the minister and his family must be such as 
will bear inspection. 

The mechanic, the farmer, and most persons who labor 
for a living have special garments to be worn while they 
work; but the minister must be ready to visit the sick, or to 
receive a person who may call at his residence, at all hours, 
even in small communities. 

He is frequently appealed to by the poor, and he must give 
to everything for which appeals are made in the Church. 

He is expected to entertain both the officials of his own 
Church and the general officials. 

In purchasing, a minister cannot make a close bargain 
without the loss of prestige. 

The minister must buy books and be a constant reader. 
One man of influence in his congregation can injure his repu- 
tation by charging him with being illiterate. 

He must pay traveling expenses to Conventions, Synods and 
Conferences. 

Many cures are proposed for the condition of inadequate 
support; but there is none so wise, so philosophical, so effec- 
tive as for the Church to see to it that, whatever present 
sacrifices she may require of her Ministers, they may know 
that in Old Age they will be sufficiently provided for. 



MOTHERS' PENSION FUNDS 
Courtesy of Dr. W. H. Foulkes 

Mothers' Pension Funds are established by law in — 

California Michigan Pennsylvania 

Colorado Minnesota Utah 

Idaho Missouri Washington 

Illinois Nel)raska Wisconsin 

Maine New Jersey Iowa 

Massachusetts Ohio Oregon 

For example: Oliio gives a pension of $15 a month to a de- 
pendent widow with one child under 14 years of age; and 
a pension of $7 a month for each additional child under 1-1 
years of age. 



260 THE EETIEED MIXISTER 

UNITED STATES PEXSIOXS 

During the fiscal year from June 30, 1913, to June 30, 
191-1, tlie United States paid out $172,417,516 in pensions, 
says Pension Commissioner Saltzgaber in his annual report. 
This compares with $171:,171,660 in 1913, the largest amount 
ever paid out. The commissioner points out that the maxi- 
mum expenditure has been reached and a decrease may be ex- 
pected to continue. The grand total of expenditures for pen- 
sions from 1866 to and including 1914 was $1,633,511,926. 

The number of pensioners of all classes on the rolls for 
1911 was 785,239, against 820,272 in 1913. The number of 
Civil War pensioners was 728,129, compared with 762,139 
in 1913. The largest number ever on the rolls was in 1902, 
when there were 999,166. 

From July 1, 1790, to June 30, 1865, there was distributed 
for pensions the sum of $96,115,111, while from July 1, 1865, 
to June 30, 1911, the total disbursements for pensions were 
$1,133,936,286. The grand total expended by the federal 
government for pensions, including cost of administration, 
has been $1,351,252,591. 



HOLLAXD'S PEXSIOXS FOR OLD AGE 

The Old Age and Invalidity Pension Act in Holland aims 
at three things : 

1. To assure pensions to those who have become perma- 
nently unfit to earn their own living. 

2. To assure pensions to every man and woman of seventy 
years and more whose yearly income has amounted to $180. 

3. To grant annuities to the orphans of those insured 
under the pension act until they shall have reached the age 
of thirteen years. 

The objection that seventy years is very old and that most 
laboring people do not reach that age cannot be urged against 
this measure, because it is coupled with the invalidity act, 
which extends the same pension as the old age act, to all those 
insured under its provisions. So when a laborer through ill 
health or weakness can no longer earn his bread he (or she) 
can draw a pension. It is immaterial whether that pension is 
called "invalidity" or "old age." 



PART II. THE CLAIM FOREMOST 

CHAPTER III. POST-MORTEM DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH 

PAGE 

1. Influence Made Immortal Warren 262 

2. Wills Horton 263 

3. "Safe" and "Sound" Wills Remsen 274 

Parson Turrel's Legacy. Holmes. . .274 

Horse Provided for in Will 275 

Getting and Spending. Christian 

Advocate 275 

Illustrations — Life Annuity Bonds . . . 276 

Life Annuity Bond 277 

Application Blank Life Annuity Bond . 278 

4. Banker Oliver's Investment 279 

5. List of Annual Conference Organizations 289 



INFLUENCE MADE IMMORTAL 
Bishop Hexry W. Warren, D.D., LL.D. 

Last year 45,737 members of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church were transferred from the church militant to the 
church triumphant. Some thousands of these had property 
which they had a right to dispose of to loved ones by will. 
We wish to commend a more general inclusion of the Lord 
among the loved ones. 

This is a matter of justice and obligation. AYhile men 
own and personally possess property, they are simply stewards 
as related to God, who giveth the power to get wealth, and 
hence should be considered in its use and disposal. This jus- 
tice and obligation also is evident from the fact that the gen- 
eral community has been a factor influential in making the 
getting of wealth possible. Men are actually indebted to 
many public causes for their wealth. There is the university 
that gave him his education at about ten per cent of its cost. 
There is the Church that made character possible. There is 
the cooperation of the customers with the tradesman, and 
there is the unearned increment on many an investment in 
real estates, etc. It is right that these aids to getting wealth 
should share in its distribution. 

This disposal greatly affects the estimation in which the 
legatee is held. Everybody loves the posthumous benefactor 
of the lowly and needy children of earth. Even the other 
heirs see that their friend has higher ideas than mere money- 
getting and broader sympathies than one's own family. 

It also affects one's own sense of relation to God. 

As life draws toward the close one wishes that his useful- 
ness might be prolonged. It can be and should be made per- 
petual by will. 

]\Iinisters should make it a part of their business to instruct 
the people in regard to their high privileges in this matter. 
Pope Leo XIII has no delicacy to prevent him from perform- 
ing his duty in that respect. In an encyclical letter he urges 
all who have received divine bounties, either external or gifts 
of mind, to employ them as a steward of Providence for the 
benefit of others. In the time of Christ there were no general 
agencies by which one could benefit the world. Hence He 
highly commended and commanded alms giving to one's neigh- 
bors, and wonderfully enlarged the meaning of that word. 



« 




WILLS 

OLIVER H. HORTON 

For Sixteen Years Judge Circuit Court, Chicago 
For Three Years Judge Appellate Court, Illinois 



I. HAVE YOU MADE YOUR WILL? 

To ask this may seem a delicate matter; but to make a 
Will does not shorten life, and you alone know to what 
cause you wish to leave your property. It is possible to do 
good perpetually by a wise bequest. 

// you have not made your Will, should you not do so now? 

// you have already made your Will, please read these pages 
and then consider whether it is as you wish it to be. 

Believing that he was doing a lasting favor to godly and 
benevolent people, the writer has prepared these suggestions 
and forms. 

Let me first state some facts about Wills, make some sug- 
gestions as to their form and the mode of executing them, 
name a most worthy beneficiary, and then "show unto you a 
More Excellent Way.^' 

The general or local Church Representatives are always 
ready to furnish legal advice and forms for those who desire 
to make their Wills, and to inform them more fully as to this 
important matter. 

Bishop Warren said: 

"Generous legacies and bequests should lift the Cause of 
the Retired Ministers to a basis of adequacy and dignity 
which will react upon the Church and fill the liearts of workers 
in all hard places with courage and ho])e." 

Hoping that by doing so we may aid the friends of Veterans, 
who may be making bequests, we state some principles and 
rules which are applied in the interpretation of Wills and 
give some forms and suggestions as to making and executing 
them. 

263 



264: 



THE EETIEED MINISTER 



II. YOU MAY BE YOUR OWN EXECUTOR 

Before explaining Wills let us urge that, as far as practi- 
cable, YOU be your own Executor. The Board of Conference 
Claimants and other Church organizations^ present a safe 
and simple aid to this. AYe trust that it would give you 
pleasure to assist tlie Veteran Preachers. To enable you to 
do so, in case you can not forego the income during life, the 
different Church Boards issue Life Annuity Bonds which 
l)aY you a liberal annuity, semi-annually, quarterly or 
monthly for life. Payments thus provided for are secured 
beyond all question. Such LIFE ANNUITY BONDS not 
only provide an income for life and guard effectually against 
uncertainties and unfortunate investments, but they remove 
all doubts and uncertainty in reference to the execution or 
interpretation of Wills, and save court fees and other costs. 

There is no safer investment and no better mode of secur- 
ing beyond all dou])t a definite income for life than is offered 
by these Life Annuity Bonds. And further, you will rejoice 
that Avhen you no longer need the income the money will go 
on doing good in your name perpetually. 

in. INTENT OF TESTATOR 

The controlling rule in Courts of last Resort is to ascertain 
M'hat the Testator (that is the one who makes the Will) 
intended. When such purpose is ascertained the meaning 
of the Will is determined thereby. But this purpose must be 
ascertained usually from the Will itself, not from outside 
evidence. 

OUTSIDE EVIDENCE 

There are some exceptions to this general rule. For in- 
stance, if a Will should contain a bequest of a farm con- 
taining 160 acres in a certain township, and it should appear 
that the Testator owned two farms in that township, with dif- 
ferent acreage, testimony outside of the Will may be taken 
to sfiow which of the two farms contained the number of 
acres mentioned in the Will. It would thus be determined 
which of the farms was meant by the Testator. 

Or, the Will might devise the farm upon which the Tes- 



1 For names of other Church organizations which receive gifts on the life annuity 
basis see page 2S9, 



WILLS 265 

tator resided without giving a description of it. Outside 
proof may then be offered to determine where the Testator 
resided at the time of executing the Will. 

These illustrations indicate the character of evidence out- 
side of the Will which may be offered to aid in its construc- 
tion, but, generally speaking, as above stated, the meaning 
and intent of the Testator must be ascertained from the Will 
itself. Hence the need of special care in making a Will. 

WITNESSES 

Some states require three witnesses, though generally only 
two are required. We advise that there always be three wit- 
nesses and thus make the Will good in this respect in all 
states. Where states require only two witnesses there is no 
objection to having three, and in case of the death of a wit- 
ness, it would be convenient to have two surviving witnesses 
to testify to the execution of the Will rather than to be com- 
pelled to prove the handwriting of a deceased witness. 

A Benevolent Board lost over $100,000 in a state which 
required three witnesses, because there were only two wit- 
nesses. 

Note this: A beneficiary under a Will cannot be a legal wit- 
ness of the Will. There should be three disinterested persons 
as witnesses. 

One of our Conferences lost a bequest of $50,000 because 
a trustee of the Society to which a bequest was made had 
witnessed the Will. 

TIME LIMIT 

In some states a Will must be made at least sixty days 
before the death of the Testator, which is a strong reason 
for immediate attention to the making of your Will. Have 
you any assurance of living two months? 

A great University lost half a million doUara for endow- 
ment because the Testator delayed, and died within a month 
of the time he made his W^ill. 

IV. VAEIOUS FORMS FOR WILLS 

Assuming that it is your purpose to make a bequest in 
favor of the Superannuated or Retired Preachei-s and tlie 
Widows and Orphans of deceased Ministers of the Meth- 



266 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

oclist Episcopal Church, you could use one of the following 
f orniG : 

rOEM OF WILL 

Know all men hy these presents that I 

of County of 

State of being of sound and dis- 
posing mind and memory do malxe, publish and declare this 
my last Will and Testament as follows: 

FIRST, I will and direct that my funeral expenses and 
my just debts be paid by my executor. 

SECOND, I give, devise and bequeath to 



(Here describe special bequest of money or personal prop- 
erty, or if real estate, give the correct description thereof.) 

THIRD, I give, devise and bequeatli to the {Board of 
Conference Claimants of the Methodist Episcopal Church, a 
corporation created and existing under and by virtue of the 
Laics of the State of Illinois, for the benefit of the Connec- 

tional Permanent FundY the sum of Dollars 

($ ) and the receipt of the treasurer of said 

Board shall be a full and sufficient discharge of my executor 
for the same. 

FOURTH, I hereby designate and appoint 

executor of this my last 

Will and Testament and direct that he (she or they) be not 
required to give any bond or security for the performance of 
the duties of such executor 

In witness whereof I hereunto set my hand and affix my 

seal this day of A. D. 19 ... . 

(Sign here) [Seal] 

Signed, sealed, published and declared by 

as and for his 

(or her) last Will and Testament; and we at his (or 
her) request in his (or her) presence and in the pres- 

'In casethe bequest is to be made for the benefit of Conference Claimants in an 
Annual Conference, or for the Retired Ministers of another Denomination, be sure 
to get the proper legal title of the Conference or Society which is to administer the 
money. See page 289. 



I 



WILLS 267 

ence of each other hereby subscribe our names as wit- 
nesses tliis day of 

A. D. 19 



CODICIL 
(An addition to or change in a Will already made). 

I .••••. ,of 

being of sound and disposing 7nind and rnemory^ do hereby 
make, publish and declare this Codicil to my last Will and 

Testament ivliicli bears date A. D. 19. . . ., 

that is to say : 

I give, devise and bequeath to the {Board of Conference 
Claimants of the Methodist Episcopal Church, a corporation 
created and existing under and by virtue of the Laws of the 
State of Illinois, for the _ benefit of the Connectional Per- 
manent Fund)''- the sum of Dollars ($ ) 

and the receipt of the treasurer of said Board shall be suf- 
ficient discharge to my executor for the payment of the 
same. 

I hereby ratify and confirm my said Will except as hereby 
modified and altered. 

In witness ivltereof I hereunto set my hand and affix my 

seal this day of A. D. 19 . . . 

(Sign here) [Seal^ 

(Note Form for witnessing to Codicil is the same as that 
to the original Will.) 

CODICIL FOE EEAL ESTATE 
Paragraph to be inserted in Will or Codicil for real 

ESTATE : 

[Number^ I give, devise and bequeath to the {Board of 
Conference Claimants of the Metliodist Episcopal Church, a 
corporation created and existing under and by virtue of the 
Laws of the State of Illinois, for the benefit of the Connec- 
tional Permanent Fund)^ the following lands and premises, 

1 See note at bottom of page 266. 



268 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

that is to say (Here insert location and correct legal 

description) to have and to hold tlie same with the 

aypurtenances thereunto belonging to said Board of Con- 
ference Claimants, its successors and assigns forever. 

CODICIL FOR RESIDUARY ESTATE 

PaP.AGRAPH to be 1X8ERTED IN WiLL OR CODECIL DEVISING 
ALL Oli A PART OF THE RESIDUARY ESTATE : 

[Numher] I give, devise and bequeath to the (Board of 
Conference Claimants of the Methodist Episcopal Church, a 
corporation created and existing under and hy virtue of tJie 
Laws of the State of Illinois,)^ all {or a stated fractional 
part) of the rest, residue and remainder of my estate, real, 
perso7ial and mixed of which I may die seized or possessed or 
in which I have any interest. 

SPECIAL NOTE: 

(a) Let tlie details of tvitnessing the Will or Codicil he 
followed EXACTLY AS STATED IN THE ABOVE 
FORMS. In many states, and perJiaps in all, if the witnesses 
are not ALL PRESENT TOGETHER AT THE TIME of 
tlie execution of the Will hy tlie Testator, the Will will not 
he prohated or held to he valid. 

(h) Any of the gift clauses of the above form of Will or 
Codicil may be omitted or others inserted. In either case 
the 7iumhers of the clauses should be consecutive. 

(c) Some states require three witnesses. Therefore in all 
states let there be three witnesses if practicable. In most 
states only two witnesses are required. 

(d) In some states it may he necessary to have a seal of 
some special form, but generally the word ''seal" ivritten ivith 
a pen ivith a scroll around it is sufficient. 

V. BENEFICIARIES 

In these forms we have named as beneficiary tlie Board 
of Conference Claimants of the Methodist Episcopal Church. ^ 
This is the great connectional or general organization of the 
Church which looks after Retired Ministers (Superannuates), 

^See note at bottom of page 266. 



WILLS 2G9 

the Widows of deceased ministers, and their dependent chil- 
dren nnder sixteen years of age. The number of such bene- 
ficiaries is ahnost 7,000, of w^hich number almost 4,000 are 
''necessitous cases/' that is, those who have larger needs than, 
can be provided for by the Annual Conference. Such neces- 
sitous cases are found in substantially every Annual Con- 
ference, and many of them are found in the poorer con- 
ferences on the border or frontier, where adequate provision 
can not be made by the Annual Conference for the Veterans 
and Widows. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church not only has the general 
organization named above, the "Board of Conferexce 
Claimants of the Methodist Episcopal Church/' but 
many Annual Conferences have Invested Funds held by 
Trustees or Preachers' Aid Societies, the income of which goes 
to the Eetired Preachers and other Claimants who are related 
to the Annual Conference. It is very important that in any 
case the exact legal name of the beneficiary organization be 
used.^ 

YI. EEASONS FOR MAKING A WILL. 

(1) If you do not make a Will the court must appoint an 
administrator to settle up your affairs. This person will 
have charge and control of your property for at least one year 
after your death, and may be a stranger or an inexperienced 
person in whom you would not confide while in life; or, if 
a relative or friend be appointed, he or she will be put to the 
trouble of giving a bond, and in some cases may be wholly 
unable to obtain the bond required by law. 

(2) If you leave no Will and have minor children, the 
shares of such minors will have to go to a guardian, who may 
also be a stranger whom you yourself would not have chosen ; 
and, during tlie minority of your children, the provision for 
them, earned by you through years of care and labor, may be 
endangered. 

(3) By making a Will, you can select your own executor, 
and nominate, if you like, a guardian for your minor children. 

(4) By making a Will, you can divide your property in 
a way which shall, under all the circumstances, seem most 
just and equitable, and make gifts to others than your heirs at 
law. 



1 For the names of such Annual Conference organizations see page 289. 



270 THE RETIEED MIXISTER 

(5) B}' making a "Will, you can make trust arrangements 
for children and loved ones. 

(6) The making of a Will is not a difficult or troublesome 
matter, nor is it expensive if attended to in a business-like 
manner. 

VII. MAKIXG A WILL A CHRISTIAN'S DUTY 

Dr. M. J. Dubois 

Protestant Episcopal Church 

A duty? Yes, indeed, the neglect of which is disobedience 
to the command, "Be ye therefore ready." Imagine a soldier 
not ready to start at the bugle call, or a clerk whose accounts 
are not ready for inspection whenever his employer calls for 
them ! Yet thousands of Christians are as unprepared for 
death ! Stewards of the Master, they are not ready to give 
an account to Him; resting in false security and letting the 
weeks and years slip by rarely if ever giving a thought to the 
time when they shall be called to account. 

"Ready" should be the Christian's answer at any time. 
And there is no excuse for us, even were the call to be very 
sudden, leaving to others the deciding of what to do with 
our belongings. If this is true of the man with ten talents, 
it is just as true of the man with one. If the millionaire must 
dispose of millions, then those who have but little are under 
even stronger obligation to leave everything in perfect order. 

In the minds of some persons there is a kind of supersti- 
tion about making a Will which makes them put it off indefi- 
nitel}'. They are afraid. Yet what splendid preparation it 
is for the Christian. To review all that God has given him. 
To realize while assigning earthly possessions to others that 
as "we brought nothing into this world it is certain we can 
carry nothing out." To loosen the tendrils of selfishness 
which have been growing steadily and imperceptibly, until 
the entrance to our heart is choked by them ! Reopen the 
entrance. Loosen t4ie hold earthly possessions have upon you 
and let the True Vine grow unhindered. Be strong and face 
death, which must come to all and wliich will not be hastened 
by making your Will. ^lake your Will quietly, carefully and 
prayerfully. Then you will look on the things around you 
as yours for a short time only; the idea of stewardship will 



WILLS 271 

grow, and when the Master calls, yon will gladly ^^leave all 

and follow Him." 

* * * 

These are earnest words by Dr. Dubois. While their in- 
spiration is on yon please remember that providentially there 
is a ^'more excellent ivaif of fnlfilling the Christian's duty as 
steward of God's manifold mercies by securing a Life An- 
nuity BoND^ and, as executor of your own estate, seeing with 
your own eyes the accomplishment of your purpose of help- 
ing the aged ministers. 

VIIL ^'A MORE EXCELLENT WAY'' 

It is the LIFE ANNUITY BOND way. Let us explain it. 

A Life Annuity Bond is an Insurance Policy "turned 
'round !" In life insurance you pay an uncertain number of 
small amounts, and one large amount is paid at death. 

In a LIFE ANNUITY BONJ you pay a large amount 
once, and receive a number of small amounts annually, semi- 
annually, quarterly or monthly, until death. 

A person who must have an absolutely sure, fixed income 
until the last day of life, or who desires to make a benevolent 
distribution of his property without litigation, expense or 
failure will buy a LIFE ANNUITY BOND. The money 
is at once carefully and safely invested by the General Be- 
nevolent Board of the Church, or the Annual Conference and 
the holder of the Bond receives regular, fixed and assured 
payments during life. When the annuitant dies the interest 
will provide perpetually for Veteran Preachers and Widows 
and Orphans. 

LIFE ANNUITY BONDS pay a higher rate than the cur- 
rent interest because the claim of a Life Annuity Bond ter- 
minates with the death of the annuitant, and a conservative 
and economical management of business without commissions 
or heavy expense assures a sufficient income. 

The rate paid to an annuitant on a LIFE ANNUITY 
BOND is determined by the age of the annuitant, the older 
the person the higher the rate. No medical examination is 
necessary. 

LIFE ANNUITY BONDS may be purchased for any 
amount, and upon the life of one or more individuals, or for 
one or more beneficiaries designated by the purchaser. 



272 THE EETIEED MIXISTER 

LIFE ANXUITY BOXDS are not experimental. They 
(late back to the days of the Eoman Empire. The British 
Government and other nations have issued such Bonds for 
more than a centurv. 

LIFE xVXXUITY BOXDS pay the interest at any interval 
desired by the annuitant — yearh^, semi-annually, c^uarterly 
or monthly. 

LIFE AXX^UITY BOXDS AEE SAFE : for back of them 
in the Methodist Episcopal Church is the Board of Confer- 
ence Claimants or the Annual Conferences and back of these 
the General Conference which authorized them. Back of 
these is the Methodist Episcopal Church, with its three and a 
half millions of members, and with that habit of financial 
responsibility and intelligent cooperation which has made its 
great Boards and Business enterprises the admiration of the 
world, and has given to them the very highest commercial 
rating. Back of all these are invested resources many times 
the amount of bond lial)ility, with investments rapidly in- 
creasing. The same statement holds true of any other De- 
nomination. For list of organizations see page 289. 

Investments are mainly in loans secured upon real estate. 
The loans and investments are made and approved by such 
experienced and successful business men and financiers. 

Had the Methodist part of the $120,000,000 paid to Life 
Insurance Companies for Life Annuities since 1890 been in- 
vested in the LIFE AXX^UITY BOXDS of the Board or 
of Annual Conferences those millions would be to-day and for- 
ever serving the Veteran Preachers. 

IX. A GEXEEAL COX^FEEEXCE OEGAXIZATIOX 

One purpose in establishing the Board of Conference Claim- 
ants and similar general organizations is in order that 
tlirough its agency the great and well-to-do Conferences 
and great-souled laymen might render assistance to the Ee- 
tired Ministers in the hard places. Thus the Pioneer 
Preacher, carrying the message of the Cross to new fields, 
has a loving recognition of his service, the home church help- 
ing him in his old age. The general or connectional Boards 
are the agents of the Entire Church, projecting plans for the 
benefit of the Eetired Ministry and Widows and Orphans of 
deceased Ministers. 




WILLS 373 

THE PURPOSES OF THE BOARD 

(1) To seek an Endowment for tlie PERMAXEXT 
FUXD and for Annual Conferences. 

(2) To agitate, inspire and instrnct, that there may he 
sufficient in God's house for His aged servants. 

(3) To cooperate with Annual Conferences in every prac- 
ticable way. 

HOW ARE MONEYS RAISED? 

(1) BY GIFTS FROM GOD'S PEOPLE. They love the 
Old Preachers and Love loosens the purse-strings. 

(2) BY THE SALE OF LIFE AXXUITY BONDS 
which at the same time absolutely and perpetually secure the 
Gift for the benefit of Conference Claimants without possible 
litigation or loss, and provide a fixed income for life for the 
donor or for a relative, or for some Veteran Preacher or other 
friend chosen by him. 

(3) BY SECURING WILLS WITH BEQUESTS IN 
FAVOR OF THE RETIRED MINISTER. 

As to Wills, Bishop Warren wrote a few days before his 
death : 

"An army of 45,000 Methodists is sent over every year to 
follow Llim who rides the white horse of victory on the other 
side. Probably a fourth of these dispose of their property 
before going. Nearly every one of them should remember 
some phase of the cause of God in that final disposition. It 
adds rest and satisfaction to the dying bed of the Testator 
and thrilling emotion to the welcoming 'Well Done' of the 
Master." 

ANNUAL CONFERENCE ORGANIZATIONS 

Besides the connectional Board of Conference Claimants, 
almost every Annual Conference has an organization for 
administering funds in behalf of their Conference Claimants. 
The legal title of such incorporated Boards w411 be found on 
page 289. Be sure to use their exact legal title in wills and 
all legal documents. 

Oliver H. Horton. 

42 Dearborn St., Chicago, 111. 



274 THE EETIRED MINISTER 

NOTES CONCERNING WILLS 

AX AUTHORITY OX WILLS 

Daniel S. Rcnisen of tlie Xew York bar, an authority on 
the post mortem administration of wealth, told the members 
of the Pennsylvania Bankers' Association that the wills of 
Harriman, Bostwiek, Yerkes, Plant, Mrs. Mary Baker 
Eddy, and other prominent persons were unsafe models to 
follow. As a type of the "safe and sound" will lie cited that 
of J. Pierpont ^lorgan. 

The way to get better wills is to make them. Law3Trs are 
able and willing if the service was demanded. The client 
must give his lawyer a fair chance and demand his best 
service. When the will is complete he must demand that it 
be tested while he is alive and able to repair any defects 
or ambiguities that may be discovered. This method pro- 
duced the will of Mr. Morgan. 

A "safe" will Mr. Remsen defined as one free from danger. 
The word "sound," he said, meant "without a flaw." A safe 
will was one so written as to insure the fulfillment of the 
maker's wishes. A sound will was one that could be enforced 
even though it might not insure the result the maker wished. 
The Harriman will, he asserted, was "sound" but "'unsafe." 
The will of Samuel J. Tilden was cited as a conspicuous 
example of the will that was both unsafe and unsound. iVll 
wills may present objectionable features when used as prec- 
edents without competent legal advice. 

But there is "a more excellent way" than that of disposing 
of your property by Will : Administer your own estate. Do 
your giving now ; or if you must protect your life income, do 
your giving by means of a Life Annuity Bond. 

This will determine the post-mortem use of your money 
without possible failure and will furnish an unchallenged 
"safe" and "sound" income during your life and the lives 
of your loved ones. 

BETTER THAN A WILL 
Money left in wills may never reach the persons or institu- 
tions for whom it was intended. ^lany wills have been broken 
and moneys diverted. Dr. Holmes in "Parson TurreVs Leg- 




GETTING AND SPENDING 275 

acy" tells us of a legacy given to Harvard College that caused 
a great deal of trouble. In concluding the story the doctor 
says: 

"God bless you. Gentlemen ! learn to give 

Money to colleges while you live. 

Don't be silly and think you'll try 

To bother the colleges when you die 

With codicil this and codicil that, 

That knowledge may starve while law grows fat; 

For there never was a pitcher that wouldn't spill, 

And there's always a flaw in a donkey's will." 



PEOVIDES FOR HORSE IN WILL 

Capt. Holly P. Nickell, a Confederate veteran of Lee's 
Summit, Mo., made careful disposition in his will of his old 
saddle horse, Pinto. A clause of the will reads: 

"It is my wish that my old horse, Pinto, shall be well taken 
care of. His shoes shall be taken off and he shall be turned 
out to grass and pass the rest of his days in comfort." 



GETTING AND SPENDING 

Deep problems of finance, national and international, are 
full of complexity, but popular interest in money, as related 
to individuals, is chiefly concerned with two very easily un- 
derstood questions: how to get it and how to spend it. Few 
persons care much about keeping it. There are abnormal 
individuals called misers who are inspired with a sinister 
purpose to hoard; and there are ill-advised people who wish 
to build great fortunes for their children, thus providing 
tliem an opportunity for selfish living and consequent de- 
struction of character. But in general the world is not 
anxious to keep money, knowing that it must be surrendered 
anyhow within a few years, when death will step in and cry, 
"Your money cuid your life !" 

The majority of people seek to retain only a sufficient 
amount of money to maintain life in comfort to the end of 
the chapter and make provision for those having claims upon 
them. There is wisdom in this policy. To hoard money is 
as foolish as to attempt to hoard time. You cannot lay up 



276 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

either and draw from the accumulation when the term of 
life is exhausted. 

The hest investment to-day is the Life Annuity Bond; as 
far ahead of other l)onds as the present mode of travel is 
ahead of the old time prairie schooner. 

A person who must have an absolutely sure, fixed income 
until the last day of life, or who desires to make a benevolent 
distribution of property before death without litigation, ex- 
pense or failure, will buy a Life Axxuity Boxd, The 
money is carefully and perpetually invested and the bu3'er 
receives regular, fixed and assured j^aymcnts during life. 
AYhen the annuitant dies, the interest provides perpetually 
for Veteran Preachers, widows and dependent orphans. 

Illustrations 

1. A widow had $1,500. She needed the income during 
life but was distressed as to its safe investment, and wanted 
tlie money to go to Retired Preachers after her deatli. So she 
paid the money to the Board of Conference Claimants, and 
now receives $45 every six months, until God shall give to 
her His welcome and crown. 

2. A husband and wife had $5,000 which they had set aside 
for aged ministers, but needed the income. They paid the 
$5,000 to the Board of Conference Claimants; and as long 
as they or either of them shall survive will receive $150 every 
six months. When they are called Home successive genera- 
tions of Retired Methodist Preachers will call them "Blessed." 
They administered their own estate and saw their money in 
the hands of the Board for perpetual investment. 

3. A Christian woman who, on account of age and ill health 
lived in California, had a house in an eastern city, whicli 
brought to her an uncertain income and all sorts of expense 
and trouble with tenants and agents. She deeded the prop- 
erty to the Board of Conference Claimants; and now, with- 
out further expense, trouble or loss on the first day of each 
month she receives a draft for $30. The rentals go to the 
Board, and when her home in Heaven opens its doors to 
receive her, the income from her earthly liome will continue, 
and provide comfort for the Aged Preachers. 

— The Christian Advocate. 

Note. — ^lany Annual Conference organizations issue satisfactory Life Annuity 
Bonds. For addresses of representatives and legal titles, see page 289. 



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278 THE RETIRED MINISTER 

APPLICATION BLANK 

(For a JoI^T Life Axmity Bond Somi-: Verbal Changes 

Would Be Made) |fl 

To the Board of Conference Claimants of the Methodist Episcopal ^" 
Churchy J0I8 So. Wabash Ave.. Chicago. III. 
I in the county of 

and State of 

(applicant), being desirous of aiding said Board to assist in the 
support of Conference Claimants, and desiring at the same time 

to purchase from said Board an annuity of .Dollars 

( $ ) , to be paid to 



(annuitant) , 

in semi-annual installments, do hereby declare that, .he was born 

at 

on the day of in the year 

One Thousand, Eight Hundred and , and 

agree that if the above statement as to the date of annuitant's 

birth be untrue, the gift of Dollars 

($ ), made by me to you shall be and become absolute 

and unconditional, and that the annuity contract issued by you 
upon this application shall cease and be canceled, and no longer 

of any effect. Annuitant's father's name was 

and h mother's maiden name was 

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and 

affixed my seal this day of A. D. One 

Thousand, Nine Hundred and 

(Signature of Applicant) 
[SEAL] 

(Signature of Annuitant if other than the Applicant) 

[SEAL] 

WITNESS: 



Note. — For the names of other Churcli organizations which receive gifts on the 
life annuity basis see page 289. 



« 




BANKER OLIVER'S 
INVESTMENT 

A STORY 

HENRY ALBERT COLLINS 

"The Life Annuity Man" 



After working in his garden until nearly noon John Don- 
aldson, a retired farmer, donned his coat and was starting- 
downtown to get his mail and make inquiries whether any 
more bodies had been recovered from the coal mine explosion, 
when he saw James Oliver, the banker, coming up the road 
in his electric. 

Mr. Oliver stopped at the gate, alighted and came toward 

the house. 

^ ^^¥^V^^] 



(^ 



"Good morning, 
James," said Mr. Don- 
aldson. 

"Fine morning, John,'' 
replied the banker. 

After comfortably 
seating himself on the 
porch Mr. Oliver said, 
"John, it occurred to me 
that you might like to 
invest the money you re- 
ceived from the sale of 
that fifty-five acres of 
ground to the Central 
Eailroad Company in 
something that would 
give you a large rate of 
interest." 
"Yes, that was our dosire,'^ said Mr. Donaldson. 
"John," said Mr. Oliver, "they are getting up a company 
to develop a large mine in the Island of Batavia. Immense 
quantities of gold and silver have recently been discovered 
there. This company has the first option on this mine." 

279 




280 THE KETlEEl) MlXlSTEPi 

"What rate of interest will this company pay?" 

"That has not been fulh' decided yet, anywhere from ten 
to fifty per cent a year, 1 have been told.'' 

"Have they sold many shares of stock?'' 

"Well, from what I have heard,'"' said the banker, "they 
are selling like hot cakes. Shall I ^^ut you down for twenty 
thousand dollars' worth of stock?" 

Before answering the question Mr. Donaldson went into 
the house and consulted his wife. Eeturning to the porch 
he said, "James, you and I have grown up together here. 
You have been very prosperous. Our tract of land which 
we sold for twenty-two thousand and five hundred dollars 
was all the property ^lary and I possessed." 

"You have that other twenty-five acres and the house here," 
interrupted Mr. Oliver. 

"That is true, but wife and I have decided to give that 
twenty-five acres to the town for a cemetery. With the big 
railroad shops and other factories coming here our town will 
he likely to grow. You know the town has only a small ceme- 
ter}^ which will soon be outgrown, and being so close in, it 
is likely to be condemned." 

"Why don't you offer to sell the strip to the town?" 

"For the reason that the best things are always given 
away/" said the farmer. "You have read the stanza : 

'Wisest he in this whole wide land, 

Of hoarding till bent and gray; 
For all you can hold in your cold dead hand 

Is what you have given away.' " 

"Yes," said Mr. Oliver. "How much stock will you take 
in the new company?" 

"James, will you give Mary and me a bond that you will 
refund to us any losses that this new company may cause us?" 

The banker shifted his chair and rejolied, "I cannot do that. 
My money is all out on mortgages or invested in real estate." 

Mrs. Donaldson came out on the porch, shook hands with 
the banker, asked after the health of himself and household; 
then excused herself and returned to the kitchen. 

"James, did you hear Dr. Hingeley preach yesterday?" 
asked Mr. Donaldson. 

"Xo, I never go to church since my wife died/" said the 
banker. 



JAMES OLIA^EirS INVESTMENT 



281 



"Well, he gave us a fine sermon about being useful in this 
world/' 

"0, I suppose so. You know that I am so busy during 
the week that I have to run out to the farms on Sunday and 
see if everything is all right." 

"James, let me tell you something. Last Saturday Dr. 

Hingeley of Chicago came 
to town and induced us to 
put ten thousand dollars on 
the Life Annuity plan into 
the treasury of the Board 
of Conference Claimants of 
the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, the connectional or 
general organization of 
which he is the secretary, 
and ten thousand dollars into 
the Preachers' Aid Society 
of our Annual Conference." 
"You're an idiot !" ex- 
claimed the banker, rising 
from his chair and reach- 
ing for his hat. 

"Wait a minute, James, 
and let me say something 
more." 
"Well, out with it," said the banker. 

"James Oliver, you know that Mary and I have given each 
of our three children a good education. Paul has a fine 
position on the Northwestern Pailroad, which pays him a 
salary of five thousand dollars per year. Esther's husband 
has a larger income. Martha will soon marry a man who is 
richly endowed with this world's goods. It is true we 
deposited twenty- two thousand and five hundred dollars in 
your bank, but on last Saturday Mary and I gave Dr. 
Hingeley a clie(^k for twenty thousand dollars for these Life 
Annuity Bonds." 

"Let me see tliem," said Mr. Oliver. 

While waiting for the banker to read the bond, Mrs. Don- 
aldson brought out a big pit('her of fresh buttermilk and a 
plate of hot gingerbread. The two men helped themselves 
to the tempting lunch. 




282 



THE RETIRED MINISTER 



After the l^anker had carefully read the Life Annuity Bonds 
he said, ''What new scheme is this to get money?" 

Mr. Donaldson replied, ''It is not a new scheme. History 
tells us that hundreds of years before Christ the old coun- 
tries were receiying 
money on this plan. In 
the year 40 B. C the 
Roman goyernment en- 
acted the law goyerning 
the annuity business. 
This law, wliich has been 
greatly improyed, is still 
in force. For more than 
two hundred years this 
annuity business has 
been growing larger each 
year. One insurance 
company, w h i c h also 
does annuity business, 
reports having over one 
hundred million dollars 
in annuities on which 
they are paying interest. 
A number of other An- 
nuity Companies report having from one to forty million 
dollars each." 

"Where did you first hear about this plan ?" said Mr. Oliver. 
"My wife," said the farmer, "visited her aunt last Thanks- 
giving, and while there she heard of two cases where Annuity 
Bonds had been of wonderful value." 
"Tell me about them," said the banker. 
Mrs. Donaldson, overhearing their conversation, came out 
on the porch and said, "May I tell you about these cases?" 
"Certainly," exclaimed both men. 

"Some three years ago a well-appearing, educated 3'Oung 
man went to Riverview, where my aunt lives. The man at- 
tended church and took a prominent part in the social life 
of the town.' He became acquainted with the church or- 
ganist, the daughter of a millionaire, and after a short court- 
ship they were married. In a few months the husband came 




JAMES OLIVER'S INVESTMENT 283 

home drunk, after having spent the night gambling in a 
saloon. The millionaire threatened to turn the young man 
out on the street, but the .daughter pleaded for mercy and 
her father relented. Seeing tlie unhappiness caused by strong 
drink, in order to put temptation out of the way of his only 
son, a delicate lad of seventeen, who was easily led by his 
associates, the father put seventy-five per cent of his property 
into Life Annuity Bonds for the benefit of himself, his son, 
and daughter, but he did not mention this fact to anyone 
except his banker. 

"Jii about a year the father died. In the meantime the 
daughter's husband had apparently reformed, but after the 
funeral went on a protracted spree, came home frenzied by 
drink and tried to kill his wife. Thinking that he would 
soon get control of his wife's property the husband made his 
boast of what lie would do with it, and when he learned that 
the estate had been disposed of on the Life Annuity plan he 
became furious and tlireatened to bring suit to recover the 
money paid for the Life Annuity Bonds. Finding that it 
was impossible to recover money paid for these Bonds, he 
said, 'Well, I guess father was right after all.' This man 
reformed, and to-day is living an honorable, useful life in 
Riverview. The health of the millionaire's son failed and 
he is still living at a well-known sanitarium. Having read 
a circular about life annuities I suggested that John write 
to Dr. Hingeley for further information, and he came at 
once to see us as John has told you." 

Mrs. Donaldson invited the banker to stay to dinner and 
he accepted the invitation. 

"John," said the banker, "I see by this Bond that you get 
a good rate of interest, which is paid semi-annually. Wliat 
induced you to put your money into the Board of Conference 
Claimants ?" 

"Do you remem])er the pastor of our church who died 
some ten or twelve years ago? lie was never paid enough 
money to support himself and family decently, to say nothing 
of saving anytliing for the ^rainy day.' He and his wife 
skimped along in order to help out with our annual mission- 
ary collections — for you know the minister always sets the 
example for liberality — until they often went hungry. The 
minister attended a fnneral one cold winter day and, being 
underfed and tbinly chid, he took cold and soon after died 



284 



THE RETIRED MINISTER 






with pneumonia. His wife went back to her folks, an object 
of charity." 

"YeS;, 1 remember him. That funeral was my wife's. I 

paid the preacher two 
dollars for preaching the 
sermon. Perhaps I did 
not give him enough. 
You know I used to give 
ten dollars a year to the 
church for my wife." 

Mr. Donaldson arose 
from his chair and com- 
ing closer to his visitor 
said: 

"J a m e s, don't you 
want to join your wife 
when you leave this 
world?" 

The banker attempted 
to S2)eak but could not 
utter a word, and bowed 
his head on the arm of 
the chair. 
"My wife was the ])est woman that ever lived," he 
sobbed. 

"You have been true to her memory all these years, James. 
God has given you many blessings and much wealth. He 
has raised you up from your recent bed of sickness. Is it 
not a good time to give yourself to Christ who died for you? 
Will you not enlist in His service and be true to Him the 
balance of your days?" 
"I will," said the banker. 

Then the men bowed in prayer, and when they arose from 
their knees the banker said, "John, I'm so happy. I never 
felt this way before. I wish that ni}^ wife were here." 

"Doubtless your wife's spirit is here, James. Her prayers 
for you are answered. You are % new creature in Christ 
Jesus; old things have passed away; behold, all things have 
become new.' " 

Mrs. Donaldson wisely refrained from announcing the 
noonday meal until the men had risen from their knees. She 




H 



JAMES OLIVER^S INVESTMENT 



285 



then rang the hell for dinner, and the men entered the house 
and sat clown at the table. 

After the blessing 
had been asked, while 
partaking of the appe- 
tizing food, Mr. Oliver 
said, "John, what are 
yon going to do with 
that twenty-five hun- 
dred dollars in the 
bank ?" 

"That belongs to 
the Lord. Wife and I 
are tithers. AYe always 
set aside for the Lord 
the first tenth of all 
the money we receive. 
He has not shown us 
yet where He wants 
this money used.'' 

"What about the 
security of the money 
you gave away for the 
Life Annuity Bond?" the banker asked. 

"That is perfectly safe," replied the farmer. "The Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church handles the money through the Per- 
manent Fund of the Board of Conference Claimants, an 
institution authorized by the General Conference and incor- 
porated by the State of Illinois. The Annual Conference 
also is regularly incorporated and duly authorized. We 
will draw the annuity interest semi-annually as long as ^lary 
or I live, and after our death the income of our purchase 
money will help support Conference Claimants as long as 
the Methodist Episcopal Church and this Republic lives." 
"Conference Claimants!" said the visitor, "who are they?" 
Mr. Donaldson replied, "This Permanent Fund is for the 
worn-out pi'cachers, and the widows and orphans of deceased 
Ministers, who are called 'Conference Claimants' because 
the Church recognizes that on account of their sacrifices 
and services they have an inherent claiin for a comfortable 
support as long as they live. They are to be paid a reason- 




2SQ THE EETIEED MIXISTER 

able annuity or pension yearly, and an additional amount 
when needed. 

^'0, I see. Xot a bad idea, and an honor to a great Church. 
Our bank is just organizing a pension retirement fund, and 
I will have to talk it over with Dr. Hingeley. He must be 
quite familiar with the problem. What about taxes on the 
Life Annuity Bond?'' inquired Mr. Oliver. 

"Annuity Bonds are not taxal)le," replied the farmer. 

"You are getting old, John. Suppose both of you die soon, 
don't you see that then the Board will get all the principal of 
the money you gave them and will only have paid back the 
interest to you ?" said the banker. 

"Yes, that is what we want," said the farmer, "but it is 
said to be a positive fact, borne out hy experience, that an- 
nuitants usually live longer than other people." 

"How do you account for that?" 

"SimjDly because a Life Annuity gives a stated income as 
long as the annuitant lives; all financial worry is removed: 
the interest always comes promjDtly ; there is no money lying 
idle to reduce the income; no commissions or expenses for 
makinsr new investments; no OTudi^e against anv one who 
advised a bad investment ; no breaking of a will ; no court 
costs or guardian's fees to pay after death, and the delight 
which always comes when we invest money with God." 

"Do your children approve of your giving away this money 
for benevolent objects?" asked Mr. Oliver. 

"^lary and I talked with our children a])out it and they 
agreed that whatever we did with the money would he all 
right as far as they were concerned. I Ijclieve you know 
what we did with the money 3^ou paid us for that north 
eighty acres ?" 

"Yes, I saw by your checks that you gave five hundred 
dollars toward building the parsonage and most of the bal- 
ance to your children," said the banker. 

The banker seemed in no hurry to leave. He moved a chair 
into the shade and sat down, and when Mr. Donaldson re- 
turned to the porch said, "John, do you know whether the 
people who invest their money in Life Annuity Bonds are 
satisfied with their investment?" 

The farmer replied: 

"It is a fact that those who buy one xlnnuity Bond nearly 



JAMES OLIVEE'S INVESTMENT 



287 



always hiij more. Dr. Hingeley 




I Lile Annuily Bond 



"We know of one case when a man 
lionaire, who desired to have an unquestioned support for 



tells me that one man has 
])urchased five Bonds 
from the Board and that 
quite a number have two 
and three each. ]\Iany 
purchasers do as I have 
done and get the bonds 
of several strong organi- 
zations.^^ 

'^'The twenty thousand 
dollars which you paid 
for the Life Annuity 
Bonds is a big sum,*' 
said Mr. Oliver. "Do 
you know whether any 
one else ever paid so 
much for those Life 
Annuity Bonds?'' 

"0, yes, quite a num- 
ber of bonds have been 
issued for fifty thousand 
dollars to one hundred 
thousand dollars each, 
and some have been is- 
sued for very much larger 
sums. 

thirty times a mil- 



his children, placed almost $600,000 in one of Methodism's 
institutions, believing that, though great business corpora- 
tions might fail, the Methodist Church would not fail. 
But of course most of the bonds are taken by persons in 
moderate circumstances who can pay only from one hun- 
dred dollars to a few thousand dollars for a Bond." 

Mr. Oliver then asked : 

"What about the medical examination before 
Life Annuity Bond?" 

"No medical examination is required," said the farmer, 
"and the older the applicant the higher the amount 
])aid." 

"Wliat do you know about tlie management of tlie funds 



getting 



288 



THE RETIRED MIXISTER 



of the Board of (Conference Claimants' Fund 
visitor. 



asked the 




Mr. Donaldson replied : 
^'Au economical and per- 
sonal management of the 
business is assured. There 
are no commissions to be 
paid to agents, no heav}^ ex- 
penses in the management, 
and no watered stock in the 
Life Annuity System, and 
for every dollar of liability 
the Board has an invest- 
ment of twenty-five dol- 
lars.'^ 

Mr. Oliver was silent for 
a time and then asked, 
"John, is Dr. Hingeley still 
herer 

"I think so. He and our 
pastor were going to call on 
several persons in regard to Life iVnnuity Bonds. I will 
'j)hone the parsonage and inquire.^' 

Returning to the porch, the farmer said, "Yes, he and our 
pastor are at Andy Campbell's for dinner." 

Mr. Donaldson reported to the banker that the meeting 
had been arranged, as requested, and said that Mr. Julian, the 
miller, had bought a Life Annuity Bond for his wife, as a 
jDerpetual birthday gift. 

"What is Dr. Hingeley's address?" asked the banker. 
Handing him a card, Mr. Oliver read, "Joseph B. Hingeley, 
Corresponding Secretary of the Board of Conference Claim- 
ants, Room 400, 1018 South "Wabash Avenue, Chicago, 
Illinois." 

"Thank you," said the banker. "I must go now." 
James Oliver shook hands with the farmer, thanked him 
for his hospitality, entered his car and said : 

"If my visit with Dr. Hingeley turns out as I hojDe it will 

I may have something else to tell you to-morrow. Good-by, 

John. God bless you !" 

Havana, 111. 



Henry A. Collins. 



LIST OF ANNUAL CONFERENCE 

ORGANIZATIONS AND THEIR OFFICIAL 

REPRESENTATIVES 



CONFERENCE 

Arkansas 

Baltimore 

California 

California German . . . 

Central German 

Central Illinois 

Central New York. . . 
Central Pennsylvanix. 

Central Swedish 

Chicago German. . . . 

Colorado 

Columbia River 

Dakota 

Delaware 

Des Moines 

Detroit 

East German 

East Maine 



LEGAL NAME OF SOC^IETY AND OFFICIAL 
REPRESENTATIVES 



Conference Trustees of the Arkansas Conference. 

Thomas Mason, Treasurer, Siloam Springs, Ark. 
Preachers' Aid Society of the Baltimore Conference. 

Hugh Johnston, Endowment Fund Secretary, Preachers' Aid Societv, 
Baltimore, Md., 3010 North Calvert St. 
The Conference Claimants' Endowment Board of the California Annu.il 
Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
J. H. Wythe, Agent of Conference Claimants' Endowment Fund, S.m 
Jose, Cal., 100 Minnesota Ave. 
Board of 'Trustees of the Cahfornia German Conference of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church. 
George Guth, Treasurer of Board of Trustees, South Berkeley, Cal., 
3312 California St. 
Mutual Preachers' Aid Society of the Central German Conference of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. 
John Mayer, Secretary Mutual Preachers' Aid Society, Toledo, 0., 
523 Segur Ave. 
Conference Claimants' Society of the Central Illinois Conference of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. 
J. W. Pruen, Secretary Conference Claimants' Society, Lewistown, 111. 
Th3 Trustees of Central New York Conference. 

Theron R. Green, D.D., Secretary of Permanent Fund, Syracuse, 
N. Y., 201 Clarendon St. 
Annuity Fund of the Central Pennsylvania Annual Conference. 

B. H. Hart, Treasurer Board of Trustees, Harrisburg, Pa. 

The Preachers' Aid Society of the Central Pennsylvania Conference. 
E. M. Stevens, President of Preachers' Aid Society, Williamsport, Pa., 
523 Market St. 
Trustees of Central Swedish Conference. 

C. J. Nelson, Secretary of Trustee Board, Moline, 111. 
Ministers' Relief Association. 

H. C. Lemcke, Financial Agent and President, Milwaukee, Wis., 
3317 McKinley Boulevard. 
The Methodist Episcopal Colorado Conference Preachers' Aid Society. 
John Collins, Secretary of Preachers' Aid Society, Denver, Colo., 
2224 South Ogden St. 
Conference Claimants' Endowment Association of the Columbia River 
Conference. 
W. E. Armfield, Corresponding Secretary of Conference Claimants' 
Endowment Association, Spokane, Wash., 02227 Hamilton St. 
Conference Claimants' Endowment Fund of the Dakota Conference. 
M. E. Nickerson, Secretary of Conference Claimants' Endowment 
Fund, White, S. D. 
Board of Conference Claimants of Delaware Conference. 

J. H. Nutter, President, Marion Station, Md. 
Preachers' Aid Society of the Des Moines Conference 
Superaniiuated Preaciiers' Aid Society of the Detroit Annual Conference. 
John Sweet, Secretary and Treasurer of Superannuated Preachers' Aid 
Society, Detroit, Mich., 1179 Fourth Ave. 
Mutual Benefit Society of tlie Members of East German Conference. 
Henry Miller, Treasurer of Mutual Benefit Society, Brooklyn, N. V., 
1169 Green St. 
Preachers' Aid Society of the East Maine Conference. 

S. M. Bowles, Secretary of Preachers' Aid Society, Fort Fairfield, Me. 

289 



•DO 



THE I^ETIEED MINISTER 



CONFERENCE 



LEGAL NAME OF SOCIETY AND OFFICIAL 
REPRESENTATIVES 



Erie 

Genesee 

Georgia 

Gulf 

Idaho 

Illinois 

Indiana 

Iowa 

Kansas 

Kentucky . . 

Lexington . . 

Maine 

Michigan . . , . 

Minnesota . . . 
Missouri .... 
Nebraska . . . 
New England 



New England Southern . 

New Hampshire 

.New Jersey 

New York 



The Erie Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 

R. S. Borland, Commissioner of Permanent Annuity Fund, Mercer. Pa. 
Permanent Fund Board of the "Genesee Annual Conference of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church." 
S. A. Morse, Conference Secretary of Permanent Fund, Buffalo, N. Y., 
37 Minnesota Ave. 
Annuity Fund Society of the Georgia Conference. 

W. A. Parsons, Secretary of Annuity Fund, South Fpworth, Ga. 
Executive or Legal Board of Stewards of the Gulf Conference. 

C. A. King, President of Executive or Legal Board of Stewards. 
Conference Board of Trustees of Idaho Conference. 

Thomas Johns, Secretary of Conference Bcsrd of Trustees, Mackay, 
Ida. 
Preachers' Aid Society of Illinois Conference. 

Robert Stephens, Field Secretary of Preachers' Aid Stciety, Dan- 
ville, 111. 
The Preachers' Aid Society of the Indiana Conference of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. 
James A. Sargent, Secretary and Field Agent, Incianapolis, Ind. 
905 Fletcher Saving and Trust Building. 
Permanent Fund of the Iowa Conference. 

J. C. Kendrick, Financial Secretary of PerKsnent Fund, Ottumwa, la. 
Permanent Fund of the Preachers' Aid Society cf the Kansas Conference. 

J. B. Gibson, Field Agent of Pernranent Fund, Topeka, Kan. 
Preachers' Relief Association of the Kentucky Annual Conference of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church 
F. W. Harrop, Secretary of Preachers' Relief Association, Covington, 

Ky- . 

Preachers' Relief Association. 

W. H. Pope, Field Secretary, Louisville, Ky., 320 Jackson St. 
Preachers' Aid Society of Maine Conference. 

W. Canham, Secretary of Preachers' Aid Society, Farmington, Me. 
The Twentieth Century Endowment Fund for Conference Claimants of 
Michigan Conference. 
L. E. Lennox, Secretary, Kalanrazoo Mich. 
Conference Claimants' Endowment Fund for the Minnesota Conference. 

Peter Clare, Corresponding Secretary, Hamline, Minn. 
Preachers' Aid Society of Missouri Conference. 

T. J. Enyeart, Secretary of Preachers' Aid Society, Boswcrth, Mo. 
Conference Claimants' Endowment Fund of the Nebraska Conference. 

C. M. Shepherd, Field Secretary, Lincoln, Neb. 
Preachers' Aid Society of the New England Annual Conference of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. 
V. A. Cooper, Agent of Board of Stewards, Roxbury, Mass., 1 Ken- 
sington Park. 
Joel M. Leonard, Agent of Board of Stewards, Melrcse, Mass, 177 
Bellevue Avenue. 
Conference Claimants' Fund of "The Trustees of the New England 
Southern Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church." 
Edward C. Bass, Financial Agent of Conference Claimants Funds, 
Providence, R. I., 145 Cranston St. 
Preachers' Aid Society of New Hampshire Conference. 

Elwin Hitchcock, Field Agent, Bradford, Mass., 268 Salem St. 
Centenary Fund and Preachers' Aid Society of the New Jersey Annual 
Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
Stedman Applegate, Corresponaing Secretary cf Centenary Fund 
and Preachers' Aid Society, Ocean Grove, N. J., &2 Embury Ave. 
Permanent Commission on Annuity and Invested Funds. 

Corresponding Secretary on Annuity and Invested Funds, Milton, 
N. Y. 



il 



ANNUAL CONFERENCE ORGANIZATIONS 291 



CONFERENCE 



LEGAL NAME OF SOCIETY AND OFFICIAL 
REPRESENTATIVES 



New York East . 



Newark 

North Dakota 

North Indiana 

North Montana 

North-East Ohio 

Northern German. . . . 

Northern Minnesota. . 
Northern New York. . 

Northwest German . . . 
Northwest Indiana. . . . 

Northwest Iowa 

Northwest Kansas ... 
Norwegian and Damali 
Ohio 

Oklahoma 

Oregon 

Pacific German 

Philadelphia 

Pittsburgh 

Puget Sound 



Thi New York East Annual Conference of (he Methodist Episcopal 

Church. 
New York East Conference Endowment Fund Commission. 

C. J. North, Corresponding Secretary, Auburn, N. Y., 138 Ea t 
Genesee St. 
Centenary Fund and Preachers' Aid Society of the Newark Conference. 
G. C. Wilding, Secretary of Centenary Fund and Preachers' Aid 
Society, 33 Emerson Ave., East Orange, N. J. 
Conference Claimants' Endowment Fund of the North Dakota Conference. 
James Anderson, Treasurer of Conference Claimants' Fund, James- 
town, N. D. 
Preachers' Aid Society of North Indiana Conference of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. 
J. W. Cain, Secretary, Marion, Ind., 1702 South Booth St. 
Board of Trustees of North Montana Conference. 

0. A. White, Secretary of Trustee Board, Poison, Mont. 
Annuity Endowment Fund of North-East Ohio Conference. 

M. E. Evans, Field Agent and Financial Secretary. 
Preachers' Mutual Aid Society, Northern German Conference. 

G. Raihle, Treasurer and Field Agent of Preachers' Mutual Aid 
Society, North Minneapolis, Minn., 1602 Dupont Ave. 
Conference Corporation, The Northern Minnesota Conference. 
J. W. Robmson, Agent and Collector, Minneapolis, Minn. 
Preachers' Permanent Fund of the Ncrthern New York Conference of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
S. J. Greenfield, Field Secretary of Preachers' Permanent Fund Com- 
mission, Utica, N. Y., 530 State St. 
Permanent Fund of Northwest German Conference. 

E. W. Henke, Treasurer, Charles City, la. 
Preachers' Aid Society of Northwest Inciana Conference. 

A. C. Shafer, Field Agent of Conference Claimants' Funds, South 
Bend, Ind. 
Conference Claimants' Permanent Fund of Northwest Iowa Con- 
ference. 
0. P. Miller , Treasurer, Rock Rapids, la. 
Preachers' Aid Society of Northwest Kansas Conference. 

C. M. Snyder, Secretary of Preachers' Aid Society. Plainville, Kan. 
Preachers' Aid Society of Norwegian and Fanish Conference. 

E. T. Schollert, Secretary, Minneaiolis, Minn., 2923 Alcrich Ave. 
Preachers' Mutual Relief Association cf the Chio Conference. 

W. H. Miller, Field Secretary of Conference Clam:ants' Commission, 
Columbus, 0., 1442 Highland St. 
Preachers' Aid and Annuity Association of Oklahoma Conference. 

J. A. Ferguson, Secretary, Tecurrseh, Ok la. 
Conference Claimants' Permanent Fund of Oregon Conference of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. 
G. F. Hopkins, Financial Secretary of Conference Claimants' Per- 
manent Fund, Portland Ore., 03 East Humboldt St. 
Conference Trustee Board of Pacific German Conference. 

George Hartung, Conference Agent for rermanent Fund, Portland, 
Ore., 345 Graham St. 
Preachers' Aid Society of I'lnladelphia Conference of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. 
J. S. Hughes, Treasurer and Corrrsr-onding Secretary of Preachers 
Aid Society, Philadelphia, Pa., 2016 North Twelith St. 
Permanent .\nnuity Fund of I'ittsburgh Conference. 

W. D. Slease, Secretary of Conference Permanent Annuity Fund. 
Pittsburgh, Pa., 3119 Kelvin St. 
Preachers' Aid and Permanent Fund Society of the Puget Se>uud Con- 
ference. 
H. Williston, Secretary, Camas, Wash. 



293 



THE RETIRED MINISTER 



CONFERENCE 



LEGAL NAME OF SOCIETY AND OFFICIAL 
REPRESENTATIVES 



Rock River. 
Saint Louis. 



Saint Louis German 
Southern California. 

Southern German. . . 
Southern IlUnois. . . 
Southwest Kansas . . 
Troy 

Upper Iowa 

Vermont 

West German 

West Ohio 

West Virginia 

West Wisconsin. . . . 
Wilmington 

Wisconsin 

Wyoming 



Superaniiuates' Relief Association of the Rock River Conference. 

C. A. Kelley, Corresponding Secretary of Superannuates' Relief 
Association, Chicago, 111., 1020 South Wabash Ave. 
Trustees of the Permanent Fund of Saint Louis Conference for Confer- 
ence Claimants. 
W. R. McCormack, Secretary of Trustee Board, Kansas City, Mo., 
2009 Spruce St. 
Permanent Fund of Saint Louis German Conference. 

H. Zimmermann, President of Trustees, Warrenton, Mo. 
Annuity Endowment Fund of Southern California Conference. 

Wesley K. Beans, Secretary of Conference Funds, Los Angeles, Cal., 
1671 West Twenty-third St. 
Preachers' Aid Society of Southern German Conference. 

H. Schmalz, Secretary of Preachers' Aid Society, Hilda, Tex. 
Conference Claimants' Society of Southern Illinois Conference. 

F. M. Van Treese, Corresponding Secretary, McLeansboro, 111. 
Permanent Fund of Southwest Kansas Conference. 

John A. Cragun, Secretary of Board of Stewards, Kingman, Kan. 

Conference Claimants' Endowment Fund of "The "Trustees of the Troy 

Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church." 

W. H. Hughes, Corresponding Secretary, Mechanicsville, N. Y. 
Conference Claimants' Fund of Upper Iowa Conference. 

J. W. Bissell, Agent of Conference Claimants' Fund Commission, 
Waterloo, la. 
Preachers' Aid Society of Vermont Conference. 

W. W. Roberts, Secretary, Williamston, Vt. 
Superannuates' Relief Society of West German Conference. 

Edw. Sallenbach, Secretary, Omaha, Neb., 3031 Leavenworth St. 
Conference Endowment Fund of West Ohio Conference. 

U. G. Humphrey, Corresponding Secretary, 220 West Fourth Street, 
Cincinnati, 0. 
Permanent Trust Fund Association of West Virginia Conference. 

G. W. Kepler, Field Secretary, Sistersville, W. Va., 112 East St. 
Superannuated Preachers' Fund of the West Wisconsin Conference. 

F. E. Bauchop, Field Secretary, Madison, Wis. 
The Board of Stewards of the Wilmington Conference of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. 
W. G. Koons, Chairman, Lewes, Del. 
Wisconsin Conference Board of Trustees of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. 
Walter A. Hall, Secretary, Fond du Lac, 
Wis. 
Preachers Aid Society of Wyoming Annual Conference. 

Austin Griffin, Secretary of Preachers' Aid Society, Oneonta, N. Y. 



A RETIRING COMPETENCY FOR THE 
RETIRED MINISTER 



PART III 
THE CLAIM SUPREME 

PROGRAM 
OF METHODISM 

Laymen declared at the National Convention 
of Methodist Men that the Claim of the Veteran 
Preachers was Supreme. Methodism, voiced by 
its Bishops, declares that ^^The Supreme Claim 
shall be given the Supreme Place/' 

The 1915 Campaign for $10,000,000 will assure 
a Retiring Competency for every Minister, Minis- 
ter's Widow and dependent Orphan. 

The Recognition of this Claim as Inherent, 
Foremost and Supreme involves the adoption of 
adequate Ways and Means, so that the Claim may 
be met. A great Judge declared: 

"Our names are on the bond, and our Master is 
the endorser. We do not propose to let Ills note go 
to protest'' 



CILVrTER I. EPISCOPAL LEADERSHIP AND CONFERENCE 

pac:e 

1 . The Bishops' Address and Appeal 295 

2. Episcopal Addresses to General Con- 

ferences • 301 

3. Voices Silent but Persuasive 303 

4. The Episcopal Round Robin 305 

5. The Inauguration Conference. . 315 

G. Building on a Good Foundation Cranston 321 

Officers, Board of Conference Claim- 
ants 324 

7. A Conquering Campaign Berry 325 

Members Board of Conference 
Claimants 328 

8. We Shall Win McDowell 329 

Two iVIen. Shepard 332 

It Couldn't be Done 332 

9. Greetings to the Con"V'ention Anderson 333 

10. Response Van Cleve 335 



a 



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3. 



ilettotiigt Cpigtopal CJjurtl) I 




HTofjn J^. Vincent 
Carl Cranston 
Babib ^. i¥Ioore 
Sfofjn 1^. J^amilton 
HTogep!) :^. Jlierrp 
IS^illiam Jf . iWcBotoell 
lames 1^. Jgasfjforb 
William JSurt 
ilutfjer ?B. l^ilson 
?a:i)oma0 Jg. ^eclp 
?^iUiam jf . Snbcrson 
EToJjn E. ^uclsen 



William ^. (©uaplc 
Cfjarles 1^. ^mitfj 
Wilson ^. ILebJis 
Cbtoin J|. J^ugfjes 
Jfranfe JH. J^ristol 
Isomer C. ^tunt? 
Cfjeoborc ^. J^enberson 
William 0. ^fjcparb 
iO^apl^talt ^uccock 
jfrancis 3^. jWcConnell 
Jfrebericfe 29. Unit 
3^icfjarb 31f. Cooke 



Wilbur ^. ^fjirfeielb 



295 



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is?? 

3 




anb 

Appeal to tije Cfiurcli 

jne l)unbreb anb fiftp rear£J ago tfte 
iiletbobist itinerant began Ijig tDork 
in America; began to create our 
Cfjurcf); to belp builb tfje l&epub= 
lie anb to a£is;is;t in e^^tablisibing 
Cbrifi^t'sJ i&ingbom in tfje toorlb. 
tKfje Jjis^torp of tftis; itinerant \^ full of fjerois^m 
anb £{elf=£;acrifice, of acf)iebement anb bietorp 
for rigl)teou£Jne£{£{. Sn tfje earlp fjeroic baps( tl)e 
guperannuateb preacber anb tbe effectibe preacfjer 
gbareb alike in tbe mobesft s^upport tljen allotoeb 
to preacf)er£{ anb tljeir families;. Sftertoarb came 
a cbangeb bas(is; for tfje Superannuate. J|e tDa£{ 
granteb bjf)at tfje Cburcb cjosie to gibe, tfte collec= 
tion being regarbeb as; a faenebolence anb it£( appor= 
tionment mabe on tije bas(i£{ of t!)e sfuppos^eb nece£;= 
gitiesi in eacl) casie. 2ro=baj) our cijurcf), acting in in= 
creasieb genero^itp anb larger jueJtice,beclareg tljat — 
** W^t Claim to a Comfortable Support Snberesf 
in tbe (gogpel iHinis^trp *"— 

tCijat tbisi claim i^ not a gratuitp nor a cljaritp, 
anb is( not forfeiteb bp retirement from actibe 
s(erbice. 



i 



P 
p 

i 

i 
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% 



296 



I 

I ariie jfletljobisit Cpisicopal Cf)urct) notu puts; itg 
retireb minister upon a l)alf=pap basiig, recboneti P 
on tl)E pearsi of gerbice, anb tftusi gtanbsf alonggibe 

1 tf)os(e gobernmentsJ anb corporations; tofticf) grant 

g olb age or sierbice pensiions; to tfjosie faittful gerb= ¥ 
ants; bjfjo tfjrousj) age or illnesis; are unable to bo g 

^ tlje Uiork tfjep lobe, ^ 

Wi}t (general Conference of 1912 autftori^eb a g 
general anb tfjoroug^ canbas^s; of tlje Cfjurcl) buring 
tf)is; quabrennium for a 3fuljilee (Sift of Jf ibe jSlil 

1 lion ©ollars; to tlje funbs; of tfte barious; Annual g 
Conferences^ anb to tfje permanent Jfunb of tfje 

3 ?Soarb of Conference Claimant^- tlf)e pear 1915 ^ 

l)as; been cf)os;en as; tfte |>ear for tfte Veterans;' 

3Fubilee, tlfte Ujorbs; can be calmlp b^ritten, but 

M tW bare s;tatement is; tbrilUng anb ins;piring be= 

^ ponb all Uiorbs;. 3n our ^iht reacb toe b^be tbree 
tbous;anb retireb minis;ters;, men tobo receibeb tbe 

^ Cburcb from tbe bJ^roic pas;t anb b^nbeb it boton 
to us;. ®beir bap of actibe toil is; pas;t ; tbeir bap 

g of siuitable recognition is; at i^mh. Wt babe on 
our Boll of Jlonor an equal number of toomen, g 
tbe toibobjs; of men tobo b^be fallen, bjomen tobos^e 

J s;erbices; b^be often equaleb anb bJbos;e s;acrifices; ^ 

S \)abt equaleb anb often s;urpas;s;eb tbe s;erbices; anb | 
s;acrifices; of tbeir bus;banbs;. 3Jn abbition to tbis; i 
bje babe more tban fibe btmbreb minor orpbans; to ^ 
tobom tbe Cburcb s;tanbs;, in (gob's; name, as; ^ 
'* Jf atber to tbe :f atberles;s;/* acbes;e all cons;ti= p 
tute tbe belobeb companp for tobom tbe Cburcb § 
nobj inaugurates; tbis; neto Campaign. 



297 



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3ri)eir Hfusit anb proper Annual Claims;, tsiti- 
mateb on t!)e Bis^ciplmarp plan, amount to one 
million gix ftunbreb tf)ous(anb bollarjf. tClje ag;= 
gregate geemsi berp large, but tf)t aberage pitifully 
gmall. STo meet tbifif, tbe Cburcfj nob) raisiesf one 
million one Ijunbreb tijouganb bollars; annuallp ag 
follob33 : tEbe Cfjartereb Jf unb, tfje olbesit in£;titu= 
tion of iinetbobifiJm, probibes; $3,600; tfje Poofe 
Concern, tfje magnificent £(um of $300,000 ; ttje 
Poarb of Conference Claimants^, $25,000 ; annual 
contributions from tbe cfjurcbesf, $500,000 ; Sn= 
nual Conference enbotomentsf, $150,000; anb 
from mififcellaneousi sionvtt^ amounts^ are probibeb 
tobicb bring up tbe total a^&M to $1,100,000; 
leabing a net annual liability of $500,000. ^i}i^ 
i^ go nearly) perfect tbat toe ougljt to go on to 
perfection. 

Wt glablp report tfjat since 1908 tbe annual 
bistribution to Conference Claimants b^s in- 
creaseb fjalf a million bollars, from $600,000 
tljen to $1,100,000 noto. ]B\xt tlje Cfturcb is 
still balf a million bollars belob3 tfte moberate 
stanbarb of ** comfortable Support,*' anb as 
pet not one Betireb ^reacfjer in ten receibes as 
mucj) as $300. ©ur task as a Cburcj) is 
to probibe $1,600,000 annually, tbe sum nec= 
essarp to meet bjljat tfje Eapmen at Snbianapolis 

calleb— 

'* ^iit Supreme Claim of tfje Eetireb 



298 



i ^ 

^ Wl}iit tf)ere i^ a continuetr increasie of income p 
from s^ourcesJ enumecateb atjobe, tlje Campaign of ^ 
1915 is; intenbeb to abb at leas^t $5,000,000 to 
tfje permanent inbesitments; fjelb bp tf)e ?lnnual 
^ Conferences^ anb bp tfje Poarb of Conference 
Claimants;* Wi^t s;ucces;s(ful is;s;ue of tfjis; Cam= 
paign, togetfjer bjitf) tfje normal increasie from g 
older s^ources;, baill enable Annual Conferences; to 
probibe tfje full legal Sinnuitp for all Claimants;, 
g aro rais;e s;ucl) an amount baoulb be a large tagfe p 
3 for a s;mall Cfturcf), but it is; onlj> a goob bap's^ 

ttjorb for tfte Mtti^obi^t Cpis^copal Ctjurclj. 3f p 
^ entereb upon bill) ^eal, entftugia^m, anb intelligent 
cooperation, it can be completeb buring tfje ^es;qui= 
S Centennial gear* j^ 

2ri)e lapmen at Snbianapolisi beclareb tf)is( to p 
be ** tf)e s;upreme claim of tfje Eetireb Veterans; p 
for an abequate s;upport in tljeir olb age/' 3f tijis; 
be true, tfjen tf)e s;upreme claim s;f)oulb for once be ^ 
giben tlje s;upreme place. Sts; funbamental rigl)t= 
^ eous;nesis;, its; appeal to our finer sfpmpatfjies; anb 
J affections;, its; immebiate urgency ougljt to gibe it 
s;uc{) place in 1915 tfjat tf)e ** Supreme Claim *' 
H gljall be fullp met ^ 

^ apijis;, tften, is; our Appeal to tfje Cfturcfj in be= p 
g fjalf of our Veterans;* ^ 

I acfje Cfjurcf) b)f)ict) boes^ not loofe after its; j>outf) p 
^ toill s;f)ortlp fjabe no abults; to loofe after. ^ 

ari^e Cljurcl) tobicf) neglects tf)e ebucation of its; ^ 
poutib toill 2;f)ortlp los;e its; place of leabers;t)ip anb 
g potoer in tlje borlb. p 

i w 

mUs p 

299 



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5^ 



STije Cfjurcf) tofjicf) ebucate£( its; mmisftr|> anb .^ 
tl)en bififcarbsi or casts; it off as s^oon as; olb age ^ 
comes; tDill s;!)ortlp ftabe no minis;trp, anb tlje 
Cfjurcf) toill be gone. P 

(gob gabe tfje (gosfpel, but it toas; brougfjt to our g 
bomes; anb \)tavt^ bp beboteb, s;elf=benping mes;= 
s;engers; of J|is( grace, arbe bjorlb tuill neber pap g 
its; bebt to tbes;e men. JBut tbe Cburcb toill not g 
repubiate tbeir claim. tKbe bebt is; jus;t. 3t is; long g 
oberbue. let us; make 1915 memorable for tbe S 
l^eterans; I 

anb as; toe tbus; appeal to tbe Cburcb toe plebge 
oursJelbes; anb, as; far as; toe map, plebge tbe tobole 
Cburcb to tbe full anb lopal cooperation toitb tbe 
Poarb of Conference Claimants; anb tbe Annual p 
Conferences; in tbeir plans; anb efforts; to bring in p 
tbis; neto anb better bap for tbe Cburcb toe lobe 
anb tbe men toe bcmor. P 

l^illiam JF. jIttclSotoeU, 
3fos;epb Jf. Perrp, g- 

laPilliam a. ©uaple, ^ 

Committee. 



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S 



I 

3 (g»tBneb) lutber JS. Mls;on, 

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XuJ 



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aibopteb bp tbe Jioarb of JSis;bops; in s;es;s;ion g 
at ^as;bington, B. C, ©ctober 29, 1914. | 

^ecretarp. E 

r 

£ 

i 



300 



EPISCOPAL ADDPvESSES 301 

EPISCOPAL ADDRESSES 
TO GENERAL CONFERENCES 

THE ADDEESS AND APPEAL TO THE CHURCH in 

behalf of the Eetired Ministers and Widows was a statement 
of mature convictions, as is indicated by previous declarations 
made to the General Conference. The address of 1904 was 
prepared and delivered by the imperial Bishop Foss; that of 
1908, by the truly and tenderly great Goodsell; and that of 
1912, by the statesman-like Cranston, who has been with the 
Advance Movement for his aged brethren from the very be- 
ginning of the newer and better things and whose term as 
Senior Bishop should see the climax of the Church's achieve- 
ments for the Veteran Ministry. 

The brief letters from the Bishops, which make a kind of 
"Pound Eobin" in behalf of their brothers in the retired 
ranks, are preceded by some words from Bishops who though 
dead still speak in terms of love for the aged brethren; and 
will be followed by letters of inspiration and approval from 
the entire Methodist official family. 

Episcopal Address^ 1904 

We bring before you in review a host of Veterans of 
the great army of itinerant Preachers of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, who have served thirty, forty or even fifty years. 

Tl-IEIR V^ORK CHALLENGES THE ADMIRATION of the Cliurch 

and the respect of mankind. They went into wildernesses 
and frontiers, into spare and poor communities and into 
difficult mission fields, into poor parts of cities and planted 
the Church. 

These are the men who created the Church, carried 
it out of the barns and- kitchens and housed it in consecrated 
buildings which they had caused to be built. 

These are the men who, hearing the voice of God, turned 
their backs on preferment, left lucrative engagements, stopped 
their ears to the promises of ambition and their eyes to the 
allurements of luxury, and took up the burdens of an itiner- 
ant life, counting all things but loss for the excellency of the 
knowledge of Christ. 



302 THE EETIEED MIXISTER 

These ake the men" who brought the good news to 
you or to your fathers and persuaded them to be reconciled 
to God. They may well be called ^camels journeying through 
the desert, browsing on thistles, laden with jewels/ 

It is the supreme command of civilization that these 
men be properly cared for. 

Episcopal Address, 1908 

A plan, carefully worked out by our commission, for the 
better support of our superannuates, their widows and 
orphans, will be laid before you. God grant that it may prove 
to be a method so wise, acceptable and adapted to all sections 
that our men may work in the certainty that when age and 
illness destroy their pastoral activity they will have their 
necessities met by a grateful Church. 

Episcopal Address, 1912 

The Board of Conference Claimants and its active Secre- 
tary have been loyal to the system outlined in the new law, 
and the outcome of their work is exceedingly gratifying. No 
more vigorous campaign has ever been waged in any interest 
of the Church than that carried forward during the last three 
years in behalf of the Fund for Conference Claimants. 

The response of the Church has been prompt and generous. 
Including the Book Concern dividends, almost a million 
dollars were given for the year 1911, and a total of two and 
a half millions distributed in the three working years since 
the Board was organized — besides $1,300,000 permanently 
invested. AYe give thanks to God for this auspicious advance 
toward the full discharge of a sacred obligation. It is a 
pleasure to know that the basis of the- plan is sound in prin- 
ciple and that its details have been so generally approved 
by the Conferences. "We have reached sixty per cent of all 
claims. Now for full payment ! With this. assured, our faith- 
ful pastors and their dependent families will no longer dread 
retirement, and the Church will no more be ashamed of its 
ingratitude to the men who have given their lives to its 
service. 



I 



VOICES FROM THE TAST 303 

VOICES SILENT BUT PERSUASIVE 

lITfjougt) JBeah, ^fjep ^tiU ^ptak 

Bishop Merrill 

The superannuated relation is not appalling. I like the 
word ^superannuated' better than the word 'non-effective.' 
It is a good Methodist word, sanctioned and sanctified by 
long usage. The relation is an honorable one, and I cannot 
see why anyone entitled to enter it should hesitate on the 
threshold or dread the relation or the name of it. It is 
simply the recognition of the facts in one's life which have 
brought him up to it. 

One of the weaknesses of our superannuate plan appears 
to be in reaching the needs of the workers who break down 
on the frontiers or who superannuate in the border and 
weaker Conferences. There seems to be no way of putting 
them on an equality with their brethren who work in more 
favorable places and superannuate in larger Conferences. 
The question of the support of our Conference Claimants 
will never be settled until a large Connectional Fund is raised, 
in whose dividends all the Conferences share. A Church 
which can give a twenty million dollar Thank Offering in 
three years and which contributed $35,000,000 in a single 
year can, and some day will, make adequate provision for the 
comfortable support of all her Veterans. 



Bishop Warren 

The Methodist Church was the first institution of any 
kind to establish a pension aid for its Veterans. It was 
begun by Asbury as the Chartered Fund. This Church far 
surpasses any other in the care of its heroes, and thus meets 
a high privilege and a- solemn duty. 



Bishop Walden 

In 1880 I stated three things: First, the sacred duty of the 
Church to furnish the Conference Claimants with "a comfort- 
able support"; second, that their right to such a support was 
as just as that of tlie Pastor, the Presiding Ehler, or the 
Bishop; tJiird, that, for these reasons, the Claimants sliouKl 



3(U THE RETIEED MIXISTEK 

have a pro rata share of the amount raised for pastoral sup- 
port. 

It is not a new cause: it antedates the Christmas Confer- 
ence; and the Diseiplinaiy place it has always had in Annual 
Conference matters has held it close to the preachers. Be- 
lieving that spiritual and secular affairs are so interrelated 
that they must be advanced together, I seized the opportunity 
of bringing this sadly neglected obligation to the attention 
of the Preachers. This was one amono: the manv efforts bv 
which the Church has been led to see her duty and to improve 
the methods for securing an ample support for Conference 
Claimants. 

Bishop Smith 

No cause before the Church is more worthy or more urgent 
than the support of Conference Claimants. These heroic 
men and women have done work for the Church for which 
they can never be fully paid. The least we can do for them 
is to give them a comfortable support in their old age. To 
make tliis support sure no method is so good as that of 
creating permanent funds to bring a regular income which 
can always be depended on. 



Bishop McTxtype 

Who said there is no "aristocracy in Methodism? I say 
there is I Have I not felt that wave of holy emotion that 
sweeps over the Conference when the warrior of many battles 
unlaces his armor saying, "Bishop, I am ready to retire. Put 
me on the last list; last and hest!" 

Yea, with wet eyes we have watched you go from the front 
line to the shade of the trees, and have said, ^'These are our 
heroes. This is our 'Hall of Fame.^ " 

As sure as His eternal word is sure, your j^atience, valor, 
faith and service are not lost. We will love you more and 
more as we fare down the hill together, and on the river's 
brim will shout you over to Him who loved you first and will 
love vou last, whose 2:reetino: will be, '• Servant of God, well 
done.'*' 

I am deeply interested in all our Church work, but in my 
thirty years' pastorate this was always first, the Retired 
Preachers' Fund. If we forget them God will forget us. 



THE EPISCOPAL ROUND ROBIN 3o; 



THE EPISCOPAL ROUND ROBIN 

VOICES PLEDGED TO THE "NEW AND BETTER 

DAY" 

Bishop Vij^cen't 

After the Bishops^ Conference had unanimonsly endorsed 
the plans for an intensive, general, cooperative campaign in 
1915, we dropped a line to Bishop Vincent to inform him as 
to what had been done. He replied as follows : 

"Any service I can render I shall be most happy to olTer. 
Am ready to write or speak as you direct." 



Bishop CranstoivT 

God gave the Gospel, but it was brought to our homes and 
hearts by devoted, self-denying Messengers of His grace. 
The world will never pay its debt to these men, but the 
Church will not repudiate their claim. The debt is just. It 
is long overdue. A Jubilee of debt paying ! Good for the 
General Conference. Let us make 1915 a memorable year 
for the Veterans. 

The Board of Conference Claimants and its energetic 
Secretary well deserve the tlianks of the entire Church for the 
zeal and success with which they have pressed their iniportant 
trust upon the attention of the people. The Bishops are in 
position to know the degree and frequency of the compulsory 
hardships which seem to be inevitable to the itinerant Min- 
istry, and to realize the justice of the claim conceded by the 
Church to the Retired Minister. It is cheering news indeed 
that there will be such a creditable advance over the distribu- 
tions of previous years. Surely the Church will not leave 
these dependent men and their families to eke out an exist- 
ence on two thirds of what is absolutely necessary for their 
support. With every honest and loyal Methodist this cause 
will plead for itself. 

Bishop Moore 
I did my best to leaven the Conference with the Cause of 
the Superannuates. how I prayed that the seed might fall 
into good ground ! God bless you in your great work moi'o 
and more. 



306 



THE RETIRED MINISTER 
Bishop Hamilton 



You know my interest in this cause and it is scarcely neces- 
sary for me to add a word to what you have said in bringing 
the matter to the attention of our pastors. 



Bishop Berry 

The Board of Conference Claimants has made a great 
beginning. Even its most sanguine friends scarcely expected 
so much to be accomplished so soon. Now a strong pull and 
a pull all together will send it forging ahead in glorious style. 
It is a cause which appeals directly to every Minister who 
will surely be its ardent friend. The laymen are showing 
deep interest. Some are giving and others will give if the 
cause is presented, and I bespeak cordial and united support 
in all the Conferences now under my care. 

By action of the Bishops, you have right of way this com- 
ing year. I discover quite a strong revival of interest in Con- 
ference Claimants and their claims. You are certainly push- 
ing a vigorous crusade, and it will tell. 



Bishop McDowell 

The Church which educates its ministry and then discards 
it or casts it off as soon as old age comes will shortly have no 
ministry, and the Church will be gone. 

I am very glad of an opportunity to join in the message of 
good cheer to the Retired Ministers and widows, not alone 
and not chiefly because of the increased funds distributed to 
those who have nobly served the Church, but because of the 
increased interest in the servants of the Church which this 
fund represents. If the Church gave its Retired Ministers 
more money and less love at the same time, no true minister 
would care for it; for after all, our great earthly reward is 
the love of the brethren; just as our high heavenly reward is 
the love of our Father. 



Bishop Baspiford 

The proper care of the veterans of the nineteenth century 
gives the best assurance of recruits for the still more tre- 
mendous battles of the twentieth century. 



THE EPISCOPAL EOUND ROBUST 307 

Bishop Burt 

One of the most inspiring and helpful hoiirs in all my 
Conferences is when I call the Roll of the Veterans. I invite 
them to the front and ask them to speak in order that their 
example and messages may kindle enthusiasm in the young 
men. There is just one regret present on every such occasion, 
and that is the little we have to give to these heroic men, and 
to the widows and orphans of those who have been called up 
higher. The one cause that the Church cannot neglect and 
maintain its self-respect is that of the Veterans. 



Bishop Wilson 
America has not yet recognized its obligation to the early 
itinerants who, in the days of the fathers wrought the mighty 
elements of conscience and faith into the fabric of our na- 
tional life. Those heroic itinerants have traveled on and 
13assed within the City. But it must never be said that the 
Methodism of the Twentieth Century is forgetful of them 
or indifferent to the obligation which the present sustains to 
the past. It is not too much to ask that this unpaid debt to 
the fathers be transferred to their successors, and that this 
obligation be met, as we meet the other honest claims which 
are upon us. The service which these men of God have 
rendered is of such nature that there are no equivalents for 
it in monetary values; and because of this it may seem 
scarcely proper to attempt expression of indebtedness in such 
sordid things as silver and gold. The fact is that neither 
here nor elsewhere is it possible to pay for love and sacrifice ; 
but it is the common instinct of humanity to recognize even 
debts we cannot pay, and, as nearly as we may, interpret 
sentiment in substantial offerings. It will be conceded per- 
haps that from the beginning the acceptance by the Church 
of ministerial service involved the guarantee of fair support 
to those who served; but far beyond such formal debt — which 
some might deem explicit and others inferential — is the real 
claim which every honest soul in Methodism must recognize, 
and which we must in some appropriate way try to meet now 
that we are called to consider it and the opportunity for suit- 
able expression is presented. As members of a great com- 
munion let us give worthy response to the call which Meth- 



308 THE EETIRED MIXISTEE 

odism is sounding- through the Board of Conference Claimants 
in the 1015 Campaign. 



Bishop Neely 

You can count on the Bishops for leadership or anything 
else they can do to forward the great work of securing an 
adequate support for Conference Claimants. They will take 
any burden that you may put on them that they can possibly 
carry. The churches and the la}Tnen must underwrite the 
guarantee to a comfortable support by providing sufficient 
permanent investments to secure a dependable pension. 



Bishop Xuelsex 

The Methodist Veterans of Europe sent hearty greetings to 
their Brothers beloved in America. There are fifty- five Re- 
tired Methodist Ministers in Europe, scattered over the Con- 
tinent from the land of the midnight sun to sunny Italy. 
They represent eight Annual Conferences, seven nationalities, 
and as many languages. A noble band of workers they are. 
They belong to the first generation of European Methodists, 
who laid the foundations. They were pioneers. 

How their hearts are cheered, when at the Annual Confer- 
ences I present to them your affectionate greetings; not so 
much because they receive a dividend from America — as 
much as they appreciate and need financial assistance — but by 
the assurance that the heart of the great Church is beating 
with theirs. The moral effect of the work of the Board of 
Conference Claimants on both ministers and laymen is most 
excellent. 

It must be exceedingly gratifying for you to know how the 
Church rallies at vour call. ^lav God^s abundant blessins^ be 
upon your work and upon the noble army of Veteran 
Preachers. 

Bishop Quayle 

A handshake with our brethren beloved who are scarred 
and wounded and ready in every way to die — to the Retired 
Ministers of our beloved Methodism. Their name is sweet 



THE EPISCOPAL ROUND ROBIN 309 

and their works do follow them. Retired ministerial support 
is no longer benevolence but a salary for which let us thank 
God devoutly. As regards the building up of an adequate 
fund to supplement the support from the pastoral charges, 
the only thing to be said is that the most we can do is the 
least we dare to do. 

May the heat not be too great for them to bear, nor the 
winter too cold, because of the summer in their hearts. 



Bishop Lewis 

The obligation created by that abandon to financial conse- 
quences characteristic of Methodist preachers in the execution 
of the task assigned to them by the Church ; the modest needs, 
unsupplied, of the worthiest band of men and women in all 
the land; Goers generous bounties distributed among a grate- 
ful people whose prosperity is in large measure attributable 
to faithful pastors and teachers; the unanimous voice of the 
General Conference inspiring, and Bishops and Secretary 
leading the Church to actually do that which every member 
knows to be just and generous, are the signs of the victory 
which shall be ours when a minimum of five millions of 
dollars shall be placed to the service of this noble company 
of Retired Methodist Preachers, their wives and their widows. 
I am anxious to do everything in my power to help in this 
worthy cause. I believe in it with all my heart and sincerely 
thank you for your masterful leadership. 

Bishop Hughes 

I have heard the words again and again, but no Methodist 
clergyman has ever yet gone to the poorhouse, and none ever 
will. To spread such false rumors is a contemptible injustice 
to the Church, and is not fair to its future. 

I am writing to offer a very hearty second to the appeal that 
Dr. Hingeley makes in behalf of the brethren who are now 
superannuated. I urge that you put much stress on the Con- 
nectional Fund. The final and practical evidence of the close 
brotherhood of our Ministry, as well as our appreciation of 
that brotherhood, may be seen in our attitude towai'd this 
offering. 



310 THE BETIEED MINISTEB 

Bishop Bristol 

I am in close sympathy with the work now being done to 
meet the demands of the General Conference for the Five 
Million Dollars asked for Conference Claimants, and to which 
the Bishops gave their unanimous approval last spring. I 
hope that the Conferences in the Omaha Area will take ad- 
vantage of this Church-wide movement to provide sufficiently 
for the Retired Preachers, widows and orphans. 



Bishop Henderson 

What a great year 1915 promises to be in the history of the 
world ! Men are looking forward and predicting wonderful 
things for the betterment of the race, because of the possi- 
bilities which they see locked up in these twelve months. We 
are looking for Methodism to thrive, of course. We are look- 
ing for better churches and better preachers and better mem- 
bers, and we are looking for better care of all our interests: 
our churches, our people and our preachers. What a year it 
will be for the Methodist preacher if the Church hears the cry 
for the Five Million Dollar investment for its veterans! It 
will be a sad year for many a man who has laboLed his life 
away for the Church and must now give place to youth and 
vigor; but what a difference for such a man to find that the 
Church will take care of him, as he has tried to take care of the 
Church ! 

Every Methodist owes much to the Methodist preacher. 
Some of us owe all that we are religiously to some preacher 
who to-day is having a few dollars doled out to him each year 
in return for the very best of a whole life given to the Church. 
For pride's sake, we should be ashamed; for love's sake, we 
will not allow it. The whole Church hears the call, for it 
comes from every quarter of the world-wide field; the whole 
Church must heed the call, for these are her own, who have 
helped to make her what she is. 



Bishop Shepard 

The cause of the Veteran has always seemed to me a sacred 
one. Love for the Master and the brethren unite to make us 
faithful to the men who laid the foundations. 



THE EPISCOPAL POUND ROBIN 311 

To the older preachers of Methodism the truth was fire in 
their bones, and their messages burned on their lips. It was, 
"Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel in that schoolhonse, 
in that barn, on that common, two or three times a day." 
They were flames of fire and voices of thunder going through 
the land. Their history is a Book of the Acts of the Modern 
Apostles; a history of the campaign of the Soldiers of the 
Cross. 

They have ceased a bit now because the silver cord is slack- 
ened and the wheel is shaky at the cistern; but they remain 
with us a while, lest we forget. While they remain they are 
the sacred wards and charge of the Church to which they gave 
their lives. They left their tentmaking, their nets, every- 
thing, that they might preach everywhere, almost without 
money and altogether without price. They left all to follow 
Christ and Paul and Asbury. Like their Lord, they became 
poor that we might be rich. Common gratitude, and above 
all, Christian love — love because of work's sake if we are 
not blessed with personal acquaintance with them — bids us 
remember them. Better, as sons in the Gospel we should 
give them their meed of reverence and the kindly care due to 
fathers. 



Bishop Luccock 

Slowly the Church is awakening to a worthy appreciation 
of the work of Methodist ministers and their wives in build- 
ing up the kingdom of God on earth. They have been faith- 
ful toilers on the King's highway. They built themselves 
into the Church and into the Eepublic. All are "numbered 
with the saints," and not a few of them deserve to be enrolled 
among the "noble army of martyrs." 

The growing solicitude of the Church for the welfare of 
its aging ministers is beautiful and gracious. Multitudes 
who, in manifold ways, have entered into the fruit of their 
labors, give to this fund "not grudgingly nor of necessity/' 
but cheerfully and generously; recognizing the care of the 
Veterans to be a privilege as well as an obligation of love and 
honor. All hail ! leaders and victors of the conquering host ! 
"The Church of Christ salutes you !" 



312 THE EFTIRED MINISTER 

Bishop McConnell 

Anxiety over material affairs can easily reach a point where 
it impairs the efficiency of the preacher of the truth. Wise 
lawyers have a saying that if a lawyer begins to "watch the 
ticker^' he is lost — that is to say, lost as a lawyer, though he 
may become a success as a money-maker. If the minister 
has to watch the ticker or any other indication of the ups 
and downs of money values, he is lost as a preacher. It was 
this universal truth, perceived in his deep understanding of 
human nature that made Jesus so anxious that his disciples 
should not be troubled by material concerns. 

I congratulate you on the work you are doing for the Re- 
tired Preachers. There is no more progressive enterprise 
afoot in our Church to-day than the effort to care suitably 
for the Retired Ministers. The movement is in line with 
the wisest social thinking as well as with the best Christian 
spirit. May you have the very largest success. 

I rejoice in your success, I believe in your work not only 
for its direct aid to the Preachers, but because of its general 
social influence. The Methodist Church ought to take the 
lead in showing to other institutions and to the community 
as a whole, the duty of caring for the old age of faithful serv- 
ants who in their prime wrought for the welfare of men. 



Bishop Leete 

None of the world's aged workers ought to be obliged to 
pass their final years in penury or in fear of want. 

Because I believe in service pensions for all Veterans, and 
because I know the great sacrifices required of men in the 
Christian Ministry I hail the day of the generous support of 
Retired Preachers and their families. Teachers, firemen, 
policemen, soldiers and the hosts of public and private serv- 
ants whose future has now been provided for and made secure 
are not to be considered more worthy than are the faithful 
souls whose toil and rigid self-denial laid the foundations and 
built the walls of Christian institutions, created the moral 
atmosphere in which alone righteous government is possible, 
and contributed largely to the comforts and to the safety of 
social life. How great a debt is due to those who have taught 
virtue, have led advanced movements, have comforted the 



THE EPISCOPAL ROUND ROBIl^ 313 

sick and dying and have brought the fact of God into the lives 
of men. 

The leaders of the Church have not amassed fortunes, ac- 
quired high stations or achieved fame. They have given their 
all for Christ^s kingdom, and for man's good. Now care for 
them — the old, the weak, the gentle, loving pastors and 
friends of other days as well as of the present. Light up their 
eyes with the joy of just recognition. Smooth out the furrows 
of care by removing altogether the dread of indigency. 
Straighten bowed forms with the sense of self-respecting 
independence. Then add frequent tributes of appreciation 
and of affection, and the cup of the forgotten, the burdened, 
the sorrowing, will overflow with well deserved happiness. 



Bishop Cooke 
In pleading for Conference Claimants I would change 
the emphasis from charity to justice. It is not so much the 
question of support for the ministry as it is that of the main- 
tenance of organized religion. How can the Church become 
the great leader of humanity and set the tune for the world 
to sing by unless she has preachers who can pitch the key, 
and can command the respect and reverence of men who come 
out of educational institutions ? We should put the question 
of a dependable pension for Retired Ministers before the 
people until they grasp the thought that it is for the sake of 
religion itself that we are planning this great thing. 



Bishop Thirkield 

The report of the increased offerings for our Conference 
Claimants is gratifyhig and inspiring. When one contcm- 
l^lates the good cheer, comfort and help brought into the 
lives of hundreds of our noble army of Retired Ministers, it 
raises a shout of joy. A thousand blessings on the noble work 
of the Board of Conference Claimants. 



MISSIONARY BISHOPS 

Bishop Thoburn 

The tendency and drift of the times is in the direction of 
"retired lists'' for faithful workers, both within and outside 



314 THE EETIKED MINISTER 

the Church. It is an instinct of the age, and no Church can 
afford to ignore it. 



Bishop J. E. Eobinson 

Eight glad I am to believe that the efforts of the Board 
of Conference Claimants to devise more liberal things for 
the proper support of the Eetired Ministers of our beloved 
Church appear certain to meet with encouraging response. 
From my heart I say : Not a mite less for a single one of the 
Church benevolences; but more, vastly more, at this oppor- 
tune time, to make it possible for adequate support to be 
secured for the good men who have valiantly borne the 
burden and heat of the day, into whose successful labors we 
have been j^rivileged to enter. 



Bishop John W. Bobinson 

He has a right to it. The Church acknowledges that right. 
He needs it. The Church can easily supply that need. 

It is this argument, that the Eetired Minister greatly needs 
and has a clear right to a modest livelihood in his old age, 
and that the Church both acknowledges that right and its 
ability to meet it, that is going to carry the campaign for a 
Jubilee endowment fund for Conference Claimants to a suc- 
cessful termination. So long as the Church is true to its 
obligations there can be no other logical outcome to the 
proposition. 

Bishop Eveland 

Our Nation pensions the soldiers who risked their lives 
for the Flag. Can the Church do less for the men who 
burn up their lives in its service? This generation is build- 
ing upon the foundations laid by others. It must not leave 
these Foundation Builders to a helpless and uncared for 
old age. It will indeed be "A Blot upon the Escutcheon" 
of Methodism if we fail to make full and adequate provision 
for the Eetired Preachers. May divine wisdom and strength 
be given to you to carry to complete success the great Cam- 
paign upon which you have entered. 



THE CONFEKEN^CE AND CONVENTION 315 

THE INAUGURATION CONFERENCE 

Convention Greetings 

"Washington, D. C, October 28, 1914. 
"To THE Bishops or the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
"Dear Brethren: 

"The Convention in the interests of Retired Ministers, com- 
posed of representatives of thirty-five Annual Conferences, 
]iow in session at the Metropolitan Memorial Church, Wash- 
ington, D. C, sends you greetings. 

"We are glad of this opportunity of expressing to you our 
thanks for the leadership furnished by you in planning the 
1915 CAMPAIGN for raising the $5,000,000 ordered by the 
General Conference, and our confidence in the success which 
will come to the Campaign conducted under Episcopal leader- 
ship. 

"Your fidelity to this great interest has brought great joy 
to the Retired Ministers, who rejoice that their Chief Pastors 
are earnest and solicitous in their behalf. 

"We anticipate with pleasurable expectation the great meet-, 
ing to be held by you in the Metropolitan Church on Thurs- 
day night when the 

Address and Appeal to the Church, 

prepared under your direction, will be presented. We know 
that the Address will ring true to this Cause, and will find 
a glad response in the hearts of the people, 

"The plan suggested at your Spring Meeting, of each Bishop 
organizing the work in his own Area, gives promise of large 
success ; and we are confident that in every Area the Ministers 
and laymen will gladly follow the leadership of the resident 
Bishop. 

"Should it be consistent with your other duties, the Con- 
vention will be highly honored by your presence at any time 
(luring the session, either as individuals or as a body." 

Invitation to the Bishops 

At the morning session of the Bishops' Conference Dr. 
J. B. Ilingeley, Corresponding Secretary of the Board of 
Conference Claimants, extended to the Bishops the following 
formal invitation to the Inauguration Mass Meeting: 



316 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

"AYashixgtox, D. C, October 29, 1914. 

"To THE COXFEEEXCE OF BlSHOPS^ 

"Dear Brothers: 

"Three thousand one hundred and eighty Eetired Meth- 
odist Ministers will leave their gardens and the labors bj 
which they help to keep the wolf from the door, and will 
assemble at the Metropolitan Memorial Church, in the Capital 
City of the great Xation which their labors have made secure, 
waiting to hear from your lips the fulfillment of this pledge 
made b}" you last April: 

"'We pledge our hearty cooperation to this Campaign in 
all ways.' 

"Accompanying them will come three tliousand one hun- 
dred and twenty-three heroes' widows, with faces shining 
through their tears, in joyful expectation that the Church is 
about to fulfill the promises made to them of a comfortable 
support, while they are waiting triumphant reunion with 
those whom we lovingly call ^Brothers/ 

"Xestling in their arms, or seated at their side, will be 
five hundred bereft orphan children, for whom the Methodist 
Episcopal Church stands as Tather of the Fatherless/ 

"All these await you in the church where the great Meth- 
odist martyr, President McKinley, worshiped, to listen to 
your solemn pledge of leadership in their Cause. 

"We call these heroes of the Cross ^Veterans.' They long 
since learned to follow where the Bishops lead, and they 
know what it means when the Bishops of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church approve the ^purpose to raise Five Million Dol- 
lars for this worthy Cause during this quadrennium !' 

"They know what to expect when you assign a McDowell, 
a Berry and a Quayle to prepare an 

Address axd Appeal to the Church; 

and they have not forgotten the many messages that the 
Church has already received from your pens, nor the militant 
words of your senior Bishop, that though 

" ^The world will never repay its debt to these men, the 
Church will not repudiate their claim.^ 

"To the holy fellowship of these seven thousand Confer- 
ence Claimants, I invite you to-night. They are represented 
by the leaders of their Cause in every Conference east of 



THE PRESIDENT'S LETTER 317 

Illinois, together with some from the Pacific coast. Xever 
before were you honored with such an invitation. The whole 
Church awaits you, and as it listens to the Poll Call of the 
Bishops, will hear also the responses of those whose words 
are preserved in the literature of this great Cause : Mclntyre, 
Walden, Warren, Bowman, Joyce, Merrill — would you know 
the others, call the Poll of all who have gone — who have 
guided legislation, inspired enthusiasm and brought joy to 
generations of Retired Preachers. Four million Methodists 
will scan to-morrow's papers to read your utterance, and the 
entire Christian world, already attracted by the purpose of 
this great Convention in the Capital City, will take new 
courage by the emphasis you will give to the daily increasing 
interest in pensions for the aged. 

^'The laymen of the Church, who at Indianapolis called this 
'^ ^The Supreme Claim of the Veteran Preacliers' 
await your word and leadership in this great movement, which 
to-day is the common task of the entire Christian Church. 

"Your Address and Appeal to the Church will bring the 
benediction of Christly joy to six thousand Claimants' homes, 
and to almost two-score thousand Methodist parsonages. 

"The Church awaits your word, and prays that in deliver- 
ing this Message the divine inspiration may make you 
Prophets of the Lord. 

"Truly yours, in the name of all A^eteran Preachers, 

"JoSErH B. Hl^GELEY." 



The White House, AYashingtox. 

October 1, 1914. 
My Dear Doctor Hingeley: 

I have your letter of September twenty-second and I hope 
that you will convey my greetings to those assembled at the 
important meeting you are planning for the twenty-seventh, 
twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth of October. 

I sincerely hope that the cause of justice and benevolence 
they will meet to consider will be carried forward with the 
greatest success. 

Sincerely yours, 

Woodrow Wilson. 



318 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

Washington, D. C, October 27, 1914. 
AA^ooDRow Wilson, President of the United States, 

Washington, D. C. 
Honored Sir: 

Your gracious letter of October first to the National Con- 
vention in the interests of Conference Claimants of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church was read before that body this after- 
noon. It is with pleasure that I convey to you the following 
resolution which was unanimously adopted by that body: 

Resolved, That the Washington Convention in the interests 
of Retired Ministers of the Gospel have heard with great 
pleasure the greetings of the President of the United States. 
We gratefully record our appreciation of the fact that this 
Christian Statesman has found time in the midst of cares and 
responsibilities, greatly increased by existing conditions, to 
recognize the "Cause of Justice and Benevolence," which we 
are meeting to consider, and to express the hope that the 
Cause will be "carried forward with the greatest success." 
We extend to the President our thanks for his communication, 
and we devoutly pray that his strength may be sufficient for 
his task. 

Resolved, That the secretary of the Convention be directed 
to send a copy of this Resolution to the President. 

Sincerely yours, M. E. Snyder, Secretary. 



EPISCOPAL LEADERSHIP 
Joint Meeting of the Conference and Convention 
Washington, D. C, October 29, 1914. 

At eight o^clock the Bishops met at the Metropolitan 
Memorial Church, Bishop Earl Cranston, Senior Bishop, pre- 
siding. 

After prayer by Bishop Burt, Bishop Cranston spoke as 
follows concerning the Greetings from President Wilson: 

The strength of such utterances as we have just heard lies 
in what is back of them. There is no doubt that the words 
of this letter from the President of the United States represent 
deep convictions, based on memories of the past; memories 
of his preacher father and the parsonage home, and of the 
years recalled by every preacher's son and daughter when the 
table was sometimes scantily laid, and luxuries were unknown 



BISHOPS' ADDRESS AND APPEAL 319 

because of meager income. I believe that we all feel here to- 
night that we have in the President of the United States a 
Christian gentleman as well as a Christian statesman, whose 
every word has been well considered from the standpoint of 
a devout believer in God and His truth, and in the obligations 
of the world to the men who proclaim the message of grace. 

Bishops' Address and Appeal 

Bishop Cranston introduced Bishop McDowell, saying: 

Some time ago in anticipation of this Convention and of 
this hour which brings the deliberations of this Convention 
to their culmination, a committee was appointed by the 
Bishops to prepare an Episcopal Address and Appeal to the 
Church in behalf of Conference Claimants. The committee 
consisting of Bishops McDowell, Berry and Quayle has pre- 
pared the Address and Appeal to the Church, and it will now 
be read by Bishop McDowell. 

Bishop McDowell made the following statement: 

The document which I now read was unanimously adopted 
by the Board of Bishops in their session to-day. They put 
on it not only their signatures, but the entire weight of their 
personal interest and oflficial power. (See page 295.) 

The Eev. Joseph B. Hingeley, Corresponding Secretary of 
the Board of Conference Claimants, formally accepted the 
Address in the name of the Methodist Episcopal Church, as 
follows : 

Bishop Cranston", Bishop McDowell and Brothers of 
THE Episcopacy : The spirit of your Address and Appeal to 
the Church represents the spirit of the great Convention 
which has just closed. I assure you that your message means 
a great deal to these representatives of forty Conferences who 
have spent three days considering the problem of an adequate 
support for Eetired Methodist Ministers. It means a great 
deal to all Methodist preachers and Methodist people to 
know that the trained, official, normal leadership of the 
Church is directing this great enterprise. 

It is therefore with great personal joy that we receive your 
message, which will go out from this historic Church to all 
the churches and will bring gladness and confidence into 
Methodist parsonages and Methodist homes everywhere. 
Three thousand two hundred Retired Ministers, three tliou- 



320 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

sand four hundred widows of brethren whom we have loved, 
and five hundred of their orphan children will rejoice in the 
fact that the 1915 CAMPAIGN has been launched by such 
an effective deliverance. 

Ever since last spring when the 1915 CAMPAIGN was first 
presented to your Board until this moment, every request 
that we, officially representing this connectional interest, have 
made to any or all of you has been granted, with mani- 
fest delight to you, as well as to the great advancement of the 
cause. In the name of these brethren assembled and of a 
loyal Church, we accept this deliverance, and we will all seek 
to show, as far as we can, that since you so well know how to 
lead, we know equally well how to follow. The General 
Conference asked for $5,000,000, but the 1915 CAMPAIGN 
has taken such strong hold on the people that the Annual 
Conferences are projecting Annual Conference campaigns 
amounting to $10,000,000. The Spring Conferences have not 
yet determined the amount for which they will ask, but it is 
evident that the 1915 CAMPAIGN will not be a campaign 
for $5,000,000, nor for $10,000,000, but for a good round $12,- 
000,000 or more, the investment needed at five per cent inter- 
est to provide the $500,000 that Bishop McDowell has shown 
you is still needed in order to pay all claims in full. Under 
the leadership of Christ's modern disciples, there will be the 
miracle of multiplying the dollars, greater even than that 
of multiplying the loaves and fishes — yet it will be a multi- 
plying of the loaves of divine bounty for the aged, the widow 
and the orphan. 

Brethren of the convention, let us rejoice that we have a 
leadership which, under God, is equal to the task. 

Bishop Berry most earnestly and positively committed him- 
self, his brethren, the Bishops, and all the churches, to an 
intensive, triumphant Campaign. (See page 325.) 

Bishop Quayle in an inimitable way aroused the enthu- 
siasm and strengthened the determination of the assembled 
delegates and the visitors. (Page 13.) 

Bishop McConnell emphasized the meaning of such a Cam- 
paign from the viewpoint of the largest efficiency. (Page 39.) 

The Senior Bishop, Earl Cranston, addressed the Conven- 
tion pledoing Episcopal leadership and cooperation. (Page 
321.) 




INAUGURAL ADDRESS 

BUILDING ON A GOOD 
FOUNDATION 

BISHOP EARL CRANSTON, D.D., LL.D. 



Every Annual Conference here represented has its own 
plan. The methods are not "uniform but all have the same 
fundamental purpose; the gathering of funds which shall be 
safely invested, and out of which there will be an annual 
revenue to supplement the annual offerings of the pastoral 
charges. I think the outlook for this general 1915 CAM- 
PAIGN is better than that of any other church-wide under- 
taking of recent years, not simply because we are going about 
the raising of a creditable sum of money for a great object — 
that might be true of many enterprises, and it has been true 
many times — but because we are now earnestly going about 
the husiness of being honest. It has been a constant reflec- 
tion on the Church that it has not dealt honestly with its 
Ministry. Every man here who has been a Preacher for forty 
years has suffered by unpaid balances, to be charged to profit 
and loss when he left the parish where the delinquency was 
made. Somebody owes this. 

As we are starting the 1915 CAMPAIGN let us remember 
that it is absolutely necessary to provide annually the sum 
of one million six hundred thousand dollars for what we 
call a "comfortable support" for our Retired Ministers. Be- 
tween the sum actually available to-day and that required 
even for this scant support there is the startling margin of 
five hundred thousand dollars. Who shall carry that large 
deficit? That is the question for the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. I see a long line of 3,200 Retired Ministers, old 
men, broken men, men with infirm health, educated men, 
men trained away from the ordinary lines of self-help in 
order that they might serve the Church; and 3,500 women, 
the widows of such men; and 500 of their orphan children 
standing before the prosperous Methodist Episcopal Church 

321 



322 THE EETIRED MINISTER 

in this long drawn out line — 7,000 of them in all. Will you 
not try in pathetic loyalty to hold these figures in mind: 
7,000 claimants; and $1,100,000 paid to redeem the Church's 
pledge of $1,600,000; on which in these days of high prices 
it is paying them only sixty-five cents on the dollar. Some 
of these once loved pastors are going cold this winter for 
want of a better overcoat; some are hardly presentable in the 
pulpits of the churches to which they are attached; some are 
able to preach as well as ever in their lives, and yet have been 
prematurely sent to retirement by the demand of the churches 
for young preachers. Surely they deserve at least a little 
comfort till God shall call them home. 

The Honor of the Church 

The question who shall hold together these two ends of 
the problem — the honor of the Church and the unpaid annual 
balance of half a million dollars — is to be now answered. Who 
shall pay this five hundred thousand dollars a year? This 
1915 CAMPAIGN for $10,000,000 says that the Church shall 
pay it. The records of the past show that the old men and 
widows and orphans have been paying it. The enlightened 
conscience of Methodism declares that they shall not continue 
to pay it by suffering penury and want. If our thrifty people 
were exposed to want, and denied the blessings which they had 
given to thousands, they would quickly find reasons for pledg- 
ing that added five hundred thousand dollars annual income 
— 5 per cent on $10,000,000 — inside of six months; and no- 
body would be the poorer. If the whole Church, and the Dis- 
trict Superintendents and even one thousand of the Pastors of 
Methodism had been here and had received the impressions 
that have been made on our minds, and had caught the spirit 
that has come upon us at this Convention, the 1915 CAM- 
PAIGN would be an easy as well as a glorious task. 

But let me tell you what we already have ; our new financial 
plan as adopted by the General Conference and the churches, 
gives promise of a larger annual offering from the pastoral 
charges. It now seems assured that the apportionment for 
worn-out preachers, as it goes out in the annual askings of 
the churches, will be larger and more fully met than it ever 
has been. Next we have the growing revenue from our great 
Publishing House, which was founded by the early itinerants; 



THE BISHOPS' PLEDGE 323 

and the increasing dividends of the Board of Conference 
Claimants which has already paid $175,000 to help where 
help is most needed. With these resources at hand and with 
a rapid, urgent, compelling campaign this program of honor 
and honesty now sent forth will be gloriously realized in 1915. 

The Bishops' Pledge 

Wing the words of our Appeal with your prayers, and 
wherever you speak let it be known that 1915 is the Jubilee 
Year for the long-neglected Eetired Ministers of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church and those dependent upon us on their 
account. God bless you, brethren, and give you the old time 
Methodist "liberty" wherever you speak on this great cause. 

I think it is fortunate that the Bishops can plead this 
cause without the handicap of seeming to beg for themselves. 
We have no complaint to make. The Church takes good care 
of us. The Bishops are free to plead for their brethren. 0, 
that every Eetired Minister might feel as restful for to- 
morrow as the Methodist Episcopal Church has made it pos- 
sible for her Bishops to feel. And for that very reason we 
ought to be all the more earnest, insistent and persistent in 
making the 1915 CAMPAIGN a complete success. 

Next to the Bishops, who stand as the natural leaders of 
the forces of Methodism, ought to be the laymen, the pos- 
sessors of all the opportunities this wonderful age and this 
opulent land are giving to men of brave heart and intelligent 
enterprise. For the sake of Christ and the Church these 
Ministers surrendered all these opportunities to them. 
Brethren of the laity, think of that ! Do not make the 
Preachers plead for themselves. I beseech you, do not lay 
the burdens of the campaign on them; but let the words of 
the Bishops, and the awakened conscience and zeal of the lay- 
men make good the purpose of the Church to meet its honest 
obligations to the men who earned the promised support long, 
long ago, and too long have waited the day of payment. 




O. H. HORTON, 

Vice-President 

J. B. HiNGELEY, 

Corresponding Secretary 

E. C. Clemans, 
Field Representative 



Bishop W. F. McDowell, 

President 



J. W. Van Cleve,] 

Second Vice-President 

Marvin Campbell, 

Treasurer 

J. A. MULFINGER, 

Recording Secretary 




A CONQUERING 
CAMPAIGN 

BISHOP JOSEPH F. BERRY, D.D., LL.D. 



Dear BRETHrtEN": This is not the time to talk about ways 
and means. I am in the presence of experts. Yon have 
discussed already the practical phases of this 1915 CAM- 
PAIGN". All that remains for us to do to-night is to congrat- 
ulate you on the success of your Convention, and to exhort 
you earnestly to go out from this place to put into practice 
the splendid ideals that you have lifted up, and the compre- 
hensive and inspiring plans which you have formed. 

A Denominational Movement 

I am very glad that this is to be a great denominational 
movement. It is more denominational than our evangelistic 
campaigns, for in them we go to men and women and urge 
them to give up sinful lives and serve Jesus Christ; and we 
make church affiliations and church loyalty a secondary con- 
sideration, emphasizing loyalty to Jesus and surrender to 
him; and that is not essentially in any strict sense a de- 
nominational crusade. But the work to which you have 
put your hands is distinctively and enthusiastically a great 
denominational movement of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
I am somewhat of a Methodist, and I want the 1915 CAM- 
PAIGN to succeed because it represents a Methodist move- 
ment. Every day I rejoice in the fact that God has given me 
a place in this communion and I thaid^ Him that our great 
Cliurch is in these days measuring up so well to its responsi- 
bility; and coming up to the help of the Lord in these stra- 
tegic times when so much is being crowded into short spaces, 
and when the opportunities are so golden. I make no apology 
whatever for the fact that I am intensely denominational. 
The fact is that tlie man wlio is not intensely -in love with a 
denomination is of very little use in the Church or the world. 

325 



326 THE EETIRED MINISTER 

The man who believes that one Church is just as good as 
another Churcli, and that it is ahnost sinful to emphasize 
denominationalism, has very little sympathy in my heart. I 
feel like a little girl who, with a little Catholic companion, 
visited a Sisters^ hospital. The Sister in charge took them 
about the place, showing them the private and public wards 
and the operating room, while the little girls looked around 
in open-eyed wonder. As they were leaving the Sister said, 
"My little dear, I have been wondering what Church you 
belong to," and the Catholic girl said, "I belong to the 
Catholic Church." "Thank God for that !" said the sister. 
Then she asked the other, "And what Church do you belong 
to?" And the little Methodist girl proudly answered, "I 
belong to the Methodist Church — and thank God for that !" 
That is the way I feel; and if we are going to have a great 
Campaign, and if it is to be brought to a successful consum- 
mation, it must be a great denominational movement, that 
will take hold of the heart of Methodism and arouse a mighty 
enthusiasm to do the work promptly and well. 

Ax Opportune Movement 

The movement is most opportune. It is a good time to 
strike. We have not had so good time as this for generations. 
The educational campaign which has been carried on con- 
cerning our obligation to pay to God what we owe Him in 
a systematic way is already bearing much fruit. If I had 
the authority I would have an educational bureau in con- 
nection with every benevolent cause in the Church which 
would be educating the membership, rich and poor, con- 
cerning the obligation and opportunity of systematic and 
proportionate paying into the treasury of God. If we could 
have that for even one year the results would make earth and 
heaven rejoice. If our jDeople would pay one tenth into the 
treasury of God, how every treasury of every benevolent 
board, and of this institution of yours would overflow. The 
problem would be, how to spend properly the money that is 
rolling in from the generous Church. 

These are great evangelistic times? Everybody is talking 
about religion. Last Sunday in the city of Philadelphia we 
had eight hundred laymen in the pulpit exhorting sinners to 
forsake sin and accept the Saviour of the world. Does that 



A CONQUEEING CAMPAIGN" 327 

mean anything? It is in the air, it is everywhere. People 
are talking about religion. I was in a banquet of four hun- 
dred business men a few weeks ago, and expected that the 
men would talk politics or business, but they spent the eve- 
ning talking religion. Have you observed how during the last 
two years the great daily newspapers have allied themselves 
with the Christian forces of the Eepublic and are specifically 
doing the work of evangelism? In Philadelphia when the 
preachers could not agree as to holding the Sunday meetings, 
a great newspaper, the North American, chartered a great 
special train, and took two hundred and fifty pastors to 
Scranton to see Billy at work, and entertained them there for 
three days. On the next Monday morning the preachers^ 
meetings by a practically unanimous vote — Baptists, Presby- 
terians, Disciples, Methodists and Protestant Episcopalians 
— invited him to come, and he is coming. If, under God, 
Mr. Sunday leads thousands of people into the churches of 
Philadelphia, to whom shall be given the credit? To the 
publisher of that metropolitan daily newspaper who had the 
courage and Christian sagacity to insist that the evangelist 
be invited. Evangelism is in the air. Our God is marching 
on. The kingdoms of this world are becoming the kingdoms 
of our Lord and of His Christ; and it seems to me. Dr. 
Hingeley, that you must have been divinely guided, just at 
this time to launch upon the Nation and the Church this 
great Campaign. The revival of systematic giving and the 
revival of evangelism will be the foundation for this forward 
movement which is to win in glorious fashion. 

All hail to the Ten Million Dollar Campaign ! If it had 
been a campaign for two and a half millions it would not 
have interested me so much. But this Church of ours is a 
great Church, and we have no business attempting small 
things. This big Church ought to do big things; and so we 
are going out in the name of God to do a great thing for 
our Veterans. May God speed the day when the Hallelujah 
Chorus will sound out in commemoration of the fact that the 
1915 CAMPAIGN has been a magnificent success; and that 
everywhere it shall be known that in the treasury of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church there are millions perpetually 
invested for the support of the Veteran Ministry. 

Philadelphia, Pa, Joseph F. Berry, 














ADDITIONAL MEMBERS BOARD OF CONFERENCE CLAIMANTS 
B. F. Adams J. E. Andrus C. W. Baldwin 

G. W. Brown E. C. E. Dorion 

James Hamilton M. S. Marble 

Perry Millar O. P. Miller J. O. Pew 



i 




WE SHALL WIN 

BISHOP WM. F. Mcdowell, d.d., ll.d. 

President Board of Conference Claimants 



I could not let the first day of this Convention go by with- 
out coming to put my own heart into it at its very beginning, 
and to assure you, if you need any assurance, of my utmost 
sympathy with the plans that are proposed by the Board of 
Conference Claimants and by the Annual Conferences for 
this magnificent thing that we are going to do. 

After I came into the pulpit to-night and found my old 
and very dear friend, Dr. Edmund M. Mills, presiding, there 
came to my mind a happy coincidence. I venture to say that 
in 1899 Dr. Mills was put in charge of the most impossible, 
in many respects the most hopeless and utterly inconceivable 
kind of a proposition that was ever assigned to anybody by 
our Church ; the task of raising the Twentieth Century Thank 
Offering of twenty million dollars. At the close of his first 
speech, with some measure of enthusiasm, he expressed con- 
fidence that the Church would do it. Think of a man begin- 
ning a job with any idea that it is going to be done. That is 
the way he did: he began with the idea that it was going to 
be done before he quit. When he had finished his speech and 
stepped down with the feeling that a man has after he has 
made his first speech for the first time, a venerable Preacher 
said to him, "I am glad that the Church has a man like you." 
Of course that made Dr. Mills feel good. "I am so glad," 
continued this good man, "that the Church has a man who 
knows so little that he hopes so much." 

Now, Dr. Hingeley, here are you two men on the platform, 
and here am I, having been related to Dr. Mills in that move- 
ment, and being related to you in this. You come not to that 
kind of a situation. You are a man who, partly by reason of 
what this other man helped to accomplish, can go on with a 
kind of confidence that is partly born of the success of that 

329 



330 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

great movement. And, please God, you do not now have to 
know so little that you may hope so much; ]jou can hope so 
much noiu because you know so much. 

This is a great thing we are at. Every once in a while we 
get stirred up in our minds because we have so many things 
going, and we say that we cannot have a Conference Claimants' 
campaign because we have an educational campaign; and we 
cannot have an educational campaign because we have a hos- 
pital campaign; and we cannot have a hospital campaign be- 
cause we have a church building campaign; and we cannot 
have a church building campaign because we have a foreign 
missionary campaign; and we cannot have a foreign mis- 
sionary campaign because we have a Freedmen's Aid cam- 
paign. But that is what makes it worth while to be a Meth- 
odist. 

I am getting to be one of the older Bishops in the Church, 
and therefore I am supposed to be fairly and reasonably loyal, 
but I make this declaration of principle and faith to you to- 
night, that if I knew a Church that had in its heart more big 
things to do for Christ's kingdom, and more determination to 
do them, and more belief that it could do them than the Meth- 
odist Church has, I would go out and get into that Church. 
For the joy of being a Methodist is that the Methodist Church 
has so many big things that it can do and wants to do. In- 
stead of worrying because we are going to start another great 
campaign let us be proud of the Church that has the courage, 
with everything else going on, to say "We will do this." For 
after all one of the tests of a Church is not the limited num- 
ber of things it can do, but the large number of things to 
which it gives its heart and hand. That is the truth of it. A 
Church that has only one or two things going on is no Church 
for a man with a lot of things in his mind. 

We are going to do it. It is not any part of mine to-night 
to do more than simply to speak this word of committal. 
^Mien I was a young fellow in the school of theology more 
years ago than I care to mention, one evening I read in the 
evening paper that Mr. George William Curtis, then editor of 
Harper's Weekly, was going to speak in Boston Music Hall 
upon civil service reform. That was the day when the prin- 
ciple "to the victors belong the spoils" was absolutely in- 
trenched in American politics, I went to hear Mr. Curtis, 



WE SHALL WIK 331 

It was a charming address; the memory of it will live with 
me while I live. At the close of the address, without any 
fuss, without raising his voice, without any indication that 
he had to persuade himself by the vigor with which he shouted 
what he was saying, but with the perfect calmness that 
expresses the highest confidence, he said : "Ladies and gentle- 
men, civil service reform is coming and is near." Then he 
told this story, that in the darkest days of the Civil War, 
when everything seemed discouraging, he called upon Mr. 
Lincoln and talked with him far into the night. "When we 
rose to separate for the night,'' said Mr. Curtis, "Mr. Lin- 
coln, remembering the discouraging conversation that we had 
had, turned to me and, putting his hand on my shoulder, 
looked dowoi into my eyes with the most patient eyes the 
world has seen for eighteen centuries, and said in a voice 
that I shall never forget, 'Nevertheless, my son, we shall win.' 

"Now," continued Mr. Curtis, "whenever I am tempted to 
lose heart, with reference to any good cause, or to lose heart 
with reference to the cause of good itself, I feel again that 
hand upon my shoulder, and see again those patient eyes, and 
hear again that confident voice saying, 'Nevertheless, we shall 
win/ for victory must be first faith, and then fact: it must 
first be in our hearts and then in our hands." 

To-night, victory is faith; to-morrow it will be fact; to- 
night it is in our hearts; to-morrow, please God, victory will 
be in our hands. 

Chicago, 111. William F. McDov^ell. 



TWO MEN 
J. L. Shepabd 

Two men of equal heart and mind 
Go forth into the world to fight, 

To win what seems the noblest good 
And battle for the right. 

One weaves the fabric of his life 
Upon the loom of wealth and power 

And sows the gifts that surely reap 
The plaudits of the hour. 

The other holds the souls of men 
Above the lure of fame and gold, 

And, toiling, leads the scattered sheep 
Into his Master's fold. 

Which won success and true reward, 
As Life's exacting path he trod? 

Was it the man who served himself, 
Or he who served his God? 



I 



IT COULDN'T BE DONE 

Somebody said that it couldn't be done. 

But he, with a chuckle, replied 
That "maybe it couldn't" but he would be one 

Who wouldn't say so till he'd tried. 
So he buckled right in, with the trace of a grin 

On his face. If he worried, he hid it. 
He started to sing as he tackled the thing 

That couldn't be done, and he did it. 

Somebody scoffed: "0, you'll never do that. 

At least no one ever has done it." 
But he took off his coat and he took off his hat. 

And the first thing we knew he'd begun it; 
With the lift of his chin, and a bit of a grin. 

Without any doubting or quibbling; 
He started to sing as he tackled the thing 

That couldn't be done, and he did it. 

There are thousands to tell you, "It cannot be done"; 

There are thousands to prophesy failure; 
There are thousands to point out to you, one by one, 

The dangers that wait to assail you; 
But just buckle in with a bit of a grin. 

Then take off your coat and go to it; 
Just start in to sing as you tackle the thing 

That "cannot be done" and youll do it. 




GREETINGS TO THE 
CONVENTION 

JUSTICE THOMAS H. ANDERSON, LL.D. 

Supreme Court, District of Columbia 



Mr. President, friends and members of the Convention: 
I have Just come from the court-room where I have been 
trying to reconcile the conflicting testimony of witnesses upon 
the somewhat doubtful theory that each one was endeavoring 
to tell the truth; and to apply the law of the case upon the 
less doubtful proposition that the lawyers wou.ld have been 
in agreement with the court as to the law if they had been 
administering it from the bench instead of engaging in a 
legal combat at the bar. I come from that somewhat tur- 
bulent and heated atmosphere into this serene and restful 
place to extend to you on behalf of the membership of Metro- 
politan Church and of the members of all the Methodist 
churches of Washington, a most hearty greeting, and a cor- 
dial welcome to this historic church and to the City of Wash- 
ington, and to assure you that we are in the heartiest sym- 
pathy with the purpose of your coming. If this Convention 
is to succeed and to bear the fruits for which we hope and 
pray, we must grasp its purpose and catch its spirit. Its 
purpose is plainly stated in this program: its spirit is in the 
heart and hopes of our common Methodism, and you will 
catch it a little later if the spirit of this Convention has not 
been tugging already at your hearts. 

What is that spirit ? It is the spirit of fair play, the spirit 
of the Golden Eule : To do unto others as we would that they 
should do unto us. We are commanded by the Great Head of 
the Church to ^^render unto Caesar the things that are Ceesar's 
and unto God the things that are God's." While He thus 
admonishes us of our duty to the state, He likewise admonishes 
us of our supreme duty to God. It is in recognition of this 
supreme duty, not only supreme but all-comprchcnsivc, that 
we are here assembled. Within close reach of tliat duty stand 

333 



334: THE EETIEED MIXISTEE 

the battle-worn A^eterans of our great Church. TVe are here, 
therefore, to focus our thought and s}'nipathy upon them and 
upon those who are dependent upon them, within the mean- 
ing and spirit of the Golden Eule. The commanding influence 
of our beloved Church as a power for righteousness and civic 
virtue and the uncompromising foe of men and measures 
inimical to the advance of Christ's kingdom and the ultimate 
supremacy of His reign over all peoples and all nations 
demands not only that our Bishops, ministers and other 
leaders, like the leaders of great armies and strong navies, 
shall be trained and disciplined for high service, and shall 
devote their lives and talents to that service; and also that 
when the years of service end — when b}^ reason of old age or 
other disability, they can no longer keep step with the mov- 
ing colmnn — they shall not be permitted to suffer and to be 
pauperized through the indifference and neglect of the 
Church. 

The time has come, therefore, for action. We have long 
since recognized the necessity for this movement, but now for 
the first time we are lining up to meet a great and urgent need. 
In doing so we are simply following the humane policy of the 
railroads, and other great business enterprises of this country, 
as well as the policy of the government of the United States 
itself, which already has upon its pension rolls its soldiers 
and its sailors, and will soon have added thereto a vast civic 
pension list, to the end that the men who have toiled in the 
service of the government until they have reached the age 
when they are no longer able to labor and earn a living shall 
not be cast out unprovided for. So should the Church, fol- 
lowing out this humane policy and recognizing the urgent 
necessities of the case, be quick to respond to the needs of 
the situation by generous voluntary gifts from its member- 
ship. We see in England an established Church with its 
Bishops, Archbishops, Peers of the realm, and spiritual lords 
of Parliament; with great cathedrals nobly endowed, and all 
that, but in this country we have no such establishment; 
and it is to the glory and usefulness of the Church that we 
have not. But the necessity for suitable provision for these 
worthy A'eterans is all the more imperative. The men who 
under the call of God enter the ministry and dedicate their 
lives to His service are dependent, as a rule, upon the meager 



GREETINGS AND RESPONSE 335 

salaries voluntarily contributed by the membership of their 
respective congregations, with nothing to look forward to for 
the support of themselves and those dependent upon them 
when old age overtakes them, other than the wholly inade- 
quate provision now made under our present system. This 
unfortunate situation should not be allowed to continue. If 
the spirit of the Golden Rule and the teachings of the Sermon 
on the Mount are to be given practical application to the 
present situation, let us make haste to do unto these our 
brethren as we would that they should do unto us. 

If we do that — and I believe we will — we cannot fail. This 
great Campaign, which you are here inaugurating, cannot be 
completed in a day nor in a year. It takes four years to 
organize and carry to completion a presidential campaign, 
and if it takes as long to complete this Campaign for right- 
eousness and simple justice — although no such time should 
be required — let us see to it that we do not grow weary in 
the fight, but that the justice and urgent need of this move- 
ment be earnestly pressed home upon the hearts and con- 
sciences of our people, to the end that the Campaign may be 
gloriously and quickly won. 

Washington, D. C. Thomas H. Anderson". 



RESPONSE TO THE ADDRESS OF WELCOME 

The Rev. Joseph W. Van Cleve_, D.D. 

2d Vice-President, Board of Conference Claimants 

It is an unprecedented thing in the history of the Church 
that there should be a convention of this character which will 
spend three days considering the interests of the Veteran 
Preachers. Such a thing has never been even dreamed of 
before, and it emphasizes the fact that the Retired Minister 
has won an altogether new place in the thinking of the 
Church. We are gathered to award to him this new place in 
our thinking, that a little further on we may give him the 
place of comfort which the Church is providing. 

It has always been easy to indulge in eloquence about the 
worn-out preachers, every one of them invested with the 
pathos that hovers over any man who is close to the edge of 
eternity; and over the line of lonely women who at times 



336 THE RETIRED MIMSTER 

attend our Conferences, reminding us of brethren departed. 
It would be easy for a man who has any gift of eloquence to 
be eloquent about them; to heap up invective against rich 
men and a neglectful Church; to draw portraits of uncom- 
phiining poverty, or to praise the heroism of days that are past 
and the almost unbelievable results of the la1)ors of these 
men who can labor no more. But the significance of this 
gathering is that we have come upon a time when we feel 
that sueli tilings are no longer sufficient, and that the time has 
come to develop a broad and a consistent business policy for 
their care. Such a policy has been outlined, and the direc- 
tions for the forward movement have been definitely given. 

We have found ourselves a little embarrassed by the multi- 
plicity of interests that seem to converge toward this one end 
and which as yet do not converge accurately. "We have not 
always been quite sure of keeping out of one another's way, 
and have not fully coordinated the various forces that work 
to this end in the various parts of our great connection. But 
for the time being, we have moved the Capital of Methodism 
to the Capital of the nation that we may take counsel to- 
gether, and make large and consistent plans which may be 
materialized into large and consistent operations; and I trust 
and believe that when we shall have concluded our delibera- 
tions here we will be ready to go before the Church with such 
a comprehensive program as will command instant acquies- 
cence and hearty cooperation. 

One of the things which give us the largest assurance of 
progress and success is the response we find everywhere from 
the thoughtful laity of the Church, such as has just been 
voiced by Mr. Justice Anderson. We are very grateful for 
this greeting and for the privilege of meeting in this signifi- 
cant church of Methodism, which has so much of the historic 
connected with it; and we shall be glad in connection with 
our chief Ministers and ecclesiastical leaders to devise and 
plan a campaign that shall so capture the imagination and 
liberality of the Church that at its consmnmation the Veteran 
Preacher shall come to his own, and have such a support as 
will enable him to retire in both comfort and dignity; hav- 
ing a sense of dignity himself and a knowledge that the 
Church itself is being dignified by the care with which it pro- 
vides for its servants in their old age. 



PART III. THE CLAIM SUPREME 

CHAPTER II. THE 1915 CAMPAIGN 

PAGE 

The Unthinking Layman 338 

1. History of the Campaign Hingeley 339 

2. Some New Things 344 

3. Approaching a Crisis Transue 349 

4. German Conferences Mulfinger 351 

5. EiN Wohlverdienter Lohn Loeppert 355 

6. Swedish Conferences Young 359 

7. VoR Gjeld til de Udtjente Predikanter Madsen 361 

8. Colored Conferences Dean 363 

9. Cooperation — The Bishops Neely 365 

10. Cooperation — District Superintendents Parkin 367 

11. Cooperation — Conference Organiza- 

tions Morse 369 

12. Conference Leadership Slease 375 

The Man without a Future 378 

13. The Campaign Program Hingeley 379 

14. The Campaign Cooperative, Intensive, 

Extensive Dorion 383 

15. Official Family — Round Robin , 

PubHshing Agents 388 

Editors 389 

Corresponding Secretaries 396 

16. ''Why Don't You Speak for Yourself?" .402 

17. We'll Do It! Oldham 403 

The Hero Fund 406 



338 



THE EETIRED MINISTER 



THE UNTHINKING LAYMAN 

Brotlier Jim Junes Avas a Methodist of the old school; 
always at his place in church ready to shout, sing or pray. 

Among his stock was old Bill, a black mule with nearly a 
third of a century faithful service to his credit. 

One morning Brother Jones hitched Bill to the plow^ and 
started across the field. 

^'Git up !" said Brother Jones, but Bill didn't move. He just 
turned his head, looked mournful like at his boss and laid 
down. His working days w^ere over. Brother Jones knew 
that, because it was the first time that Bill had ever refused 
to move. As he looked into the mule's eyes he knew that 
Bill had done his level best, and that he hated to quit. But 
there was no help for it; and so he turned him out to die. 

That night Joe, Brother Jones' boy, said : 

"Pap, what've you done with old Bill?" 

"Why, son, he fell down at the plow this morning, and 
I turned him out to die. Guess his working days are over." 

"You turned old Bill out to die ! See here. Pap ; ain't 
he been working for you all his life?" 

"He sure has, son, and he worked, hard, too.'* 

"And you goin* to church every Sunday and singin' 'I 
Want to Be an xA.ngel' ? Pap, do you reckon an angel would 
treat old Bill that way after he'd worked for him all his 
days ?" 

This was putting the thing in a new light to the old man, 
and Brother Jones began to feel that he had been pretty mean 
to old Bill. He spoke to his wife about it, and she told him 
that if he didn't go out and get old Bill and bring him to 
the barn and feed him and treat him well from that time on, 
she^d leave him. Every person about the place seemed to 
think that Brother Jones had treated old Bill outrageously 
mean; and he was so ashamed of himself that he sneaked 
down into the woods, hunted up the old mule and brought 
him back. 

From that time on every day was Sunday for old Bill. 

Was Joe right? Were Sister Jones and the hired man 
and the neighbors right? 

Did old Bill's third of a century of faithful geeing and 
hawing and plowing and mowing beget DUTY? 

And I wonder if old Preacher's service begets duty. 



THE YETERAXS' JUBILEE _ 330 

HISTORY OF THE 1915 CAMPAIGN 

Dr. Hingeley's Eeport^ 1912 

In the report made by the Corresponding Secretary of the 
Board of Conference Claimants at the Annual Meeting in 
February, 1912, the following suggestions were recorded: 

The Veterans' Jubilee 

The suggestion of Dr. E. L. Watson, of the Baltimore 
Conference, that since the next quadrennium included the 
Sesqui-Centennial of American Methodism, it should be made 
emphatic by raising a million dollars for the Permanent Fund 
of the Board of Conference Claimants, has been eclioed in 
different parts of the country. Mr. J. P. Holland, formerly 
of Milford, Del., introduced the following resolution in the 
California Lay Electoral Conference, and it was unanimously 
passed : 

^' Whereas^ The next Quadrennium, 1912-1916, includes the 
one hundred and fiftieth Anniversary of American Meth- 
odism, the tremendous growth of which has been due in the 
largest sense to the fidelity, energy and self-sacrifice of a 
Ministry which is represented to-day by the Superannuated 
Preachers, who have so often yielded to other causes that only 
during one brief quadrennium has the Church systematically 
and earnestly pushed their claims on the attention of our 
people or legislated directly in their interest. Therefore, be it 

''Resolved, 1, That we memorialize the General Conference 
of 1912 to assign to the Church, during the next quadren- 
nium, the holy task of so increasing the annual income for 
the superannuates that the promise of a comfortable support, 
sacredly made to them when they enter the Methodist Min- 
istry, shall be fulfilled to those who are to-day in the honored 
ranks of tlie A^eteran Preachers. 

^'2. That to secure such comfortable support for the. future, 
we request the General Conference to call upon tlie (Miurch 
for a Million Dollars for the Permanent Fund of the I)oard 
of Conference Claimants, that it may have am[)le I'linds avail- 
able to lead the Church in this movement, and to provide for 
necessitous cases and needy Conferences. 

^'3. That we request the Bishops to include thi.^ movement 



340 



THE EETIEED MIXISTER 



in the Episcopal Address, and to urge this program on the 
attention of the General Conference with such recommenda- 
tion as may seem to them to be wise, to the end that the 
Church may graciously and sufficiently provide for the super- 
annuates who come from the pastorate, as it does for those 
who enter the Honor Roll of the Veteran Ministry from the 
General Superintendency." 

Quite a number of Annual and Lay Conferences passed 
similar resolutions, memorializing the General Conference to 
set aside the next quadrennium for Conference Claimants. 

Dr. Hingeley. Corresponding Secretary, added : 

"It is yery fitting that the several Jubilees which have been 
held, for Africa, Korea, China, etc., should be followed by a 
great Jubilee for the cause of the Veteran Preacher; and it 
is hoped that the next General Conference will assign to the 
Board the task of leadership in this movement, and I suggest 
that a memorial covering the same be sent from this Board 
to the General Conference and that the ^lembers of the 
Board who may be deles^ates to the next General Conference 
be requested to urge this matter on the attention of the dele- 
gates. 

"The Hebrew Jubilee was held every fifty years. The Old 
Preacher has waited three times fifty years for his Jubilee. 
How dare we refuse him !" 

The General Coxferexce^ 1912 

In accordance with these suggestions, the Board memorial- 
ized the General Conference, which took action as follows: 
Report Xo. 1, the Jubilee Gift 

"Whereas^ The year 1912 is the Centenary of the first dele- 
gated General Conference and opens the quadrennium in 
which the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of American 
Methodism falls and should be fittingly observed. Therefore 
be it 

^'Resolved, That the General Conference authorize a general 
canvass of the Church, during this quadrennium, in behalf of 
the various endo^^Tiient funds for Conference Claimants, for 
a Jubilee Gift of $5,000,000, the same to comprise all gifts 
to the funds of the several Annual Conferences, and also to 
the Connectional Permanent Fund of the Board of Confer- 
ence Claimants." 



MOVEMENT EOR COOPERATION 341 

The Action of the Board, 1913 

At the Annual Meeting of the Board held in February, 
1913, the Board adopted the following : 

"We note with pleasure that part of the report of the Corre- 
sponding Secretary concerning his interviews with represen- 
tatives of Annual Conferences, relative to cooperation be- 
tween Annual Conferences and the Board of Conference 
Claimants, which indicates willingness on their part to engage 
in such combined effort. This will not only directly increase 
the amounts in the hands of the Board of Conference Claim- 
ants, but will enable the Board largely and effectively to 
promote the general cause by helping to increase the funds 
in the hands of Annual Conferences." 

Dr. Hingeley's Report, 1914 

Meanwhile the Corresponding Secretary had come into 
sympathetic relations with the leaders in many great Con- 
ferences, and in February, 1914, was able to report to the 
Board as follows : 

'^I believe our plans are practicable and that large results 
will be accomplished by cooperative effort. Nineteen hundred 
fourteen should be the year when the Annual Conferences 
shall assume their entire responsibility for Retired Ministers 
and other claimants and provide sufficiently for present needs. 
Nineteen hundred fifteen must be the year of cooperation 
between the Board and the Annual Conferences to bring 
from hiding $5,000,000 of God's money, now 'hid in napkins' 
and subject to moth and rust and loss; and 1916 should see 
the present provisions for the care of Retired Ministers and 
widows so far realized as to make it advisable to adjust stand- 
ards of support on a more liberal basis." 

After mature deliberation the Board adopted the following 
resolution : 

"We believe that the time has come when some aggressive 
movement should be made to bring this Board and the secre- 
taries or other representatives of Annual Conference Super- 
annuate Funds, Preachers' Aid Societies and similar organi- 
zations, as well as representatives of the Conferences wiiich 
have as yet no organization, into a more perfect understand- 
ing that we are working for the same end. Therefore, 



;]I2 THE EETIRED MINISTER 

"We recommend that this Board take the initiative by call- 
ing a great conference of secretaries and representatives to 
meet with the Board at tlie time most advisable. To this 
end the cooperation of the J^>is])()ps sliouhl be secured." 

Group Meetings 

The General Conference had alread}^ taken action, looking 
forward to an intensive campaign for Five Million Dollars 
as the Sesqui-Centennial Gift for Conference Claimants; 
and in accordance with this recommendation of the Board, 
Dr. Ilingeley held group meetings of Conference representa- 
tives at Minneapolis, Chicago, Columl)us, Cleveland, Syracuse, 
Boston, Xew York, Philadelphia and Baltimore, all of which 
unanimously recommended that an intensive and extensive 
campaign for Five Million Dollars during the year 1915 be 
projected, and requested the Bishops to cooperate in the 
arrangements and to give episcopal leadership. 

Bishops^ Meeting at Germantown 

Meanwhile the spring Conferences endorsed the 1915 CAM- 
PAIGX, and on April 30, 1914, a committee representing the 
several group meetings waited upon the Board of Bishops, 
who unanimousl}^ adopted the following: 

"Resolved, That the Bishops have heard with pleasure the 
representations of the Board of Conference Claimants and 
of the several Annual Conferences, concerning the plans 
under contemplation for the larger and more adequate pro- 
vision for the care of our Conference Claimants. 

"2. That without having before us the details of plans pro- 
posed, we heartily approve the general purpose to raise the 
sum of Five Million Dollars for this worthy cause during 
this quadrennium. 

"3. That a committee of three Bishops be appointed at 
this meeting to prepare an address to the Church to l)e 
adopted at our following meeting, for the launching of the 
Campaign proposed for the year 1915. 

"■I. That we pledge our hearty cooperation to this Cam- 
paign in all ways." 

The following Committee was appointed to prepare the 
Address and Apj^eal to the Church : Bisho^DS McDowell, Berry 
and Quayle. 



THE 1915 CAMPAIGN" 343 

In sending these resolutions to the Church the senior 
Bishop sent the following message : 

"God gave the Gospel, but it was brought to our homes and 
hearts by devoted, self-denying Messengers of His grace. 
The world will never pay its debt to these men, but the 
Church will not repudiate their claim. The deljt is just. It 
is long overdue. 

"A Jubilee of debt paying ! Good for the General Confer- 
ence. Let us make 1915 a memorable year for the Veterans. 

Eael Cranstox." 

During the summer of 1914 Dr. Hingeley met district 
superintendents. Conference agents, trustees, stewards and 
other representatives of thirty fall Conferences, which made 
recommendations for the 1915 CAMPAIGN, which were sub- 
sequently adopted by the Annual Conferences. 

The 1915 Campaign 

The 1915 CAMPAIGN is not merely for $5,000,000. It 
is for whatever amount of money, as determined by the sev- 
eral Annual Conferences, is necessary in order to provide a 
dependable annuity or pension for all claimants for all time 
to come. On December 31, 1914, the total amount so desig- 
nated exceeds $12,000,000, with several Conferences yet to 
report. When this amount, in addition to present holdings, 
is in the treasuries of the several Annual Conferences, and 
in the Permanent Fund of the Board of Conference Claim- 
ants, Annual Conferences will be on the one hundred per 
cent basis of payment, will be able to provide the full annu- 
ities as fixed by the Discipline and to add a sufficient amount 
in the special cases so as to insure a "comfortable suj^port" 
for each of the seven thousand Claimants of Methodism. 

Washington" Inauguration Convention 

Such was the preparatory work which brought the Church 
to the Climactic Day, October 29, 1914, when, after the close 
of the Washington Inauguration Convention, tlie Bishops de- 
livered their "Address and Appeal to the Church." 



34:4: THE PiETIRED MIXISTER 

SOME NEW THINGS 

THE XEW ATMOSPHEEE AXD PUEPOSE 

At tlie Central Xew York Conference I was introduced at 
ten O'clock, and to my question, **How much time have I?" 
Bishop Burt replied, "You have all the time until adjourn- 
ment/' two hours; and the Bishop, Dr. Keeney, Dr. Greene 
and myself took all the time. At two o'clock I was called to 
speak at a joint meetin^a: of the laymen and preachers, and 
again at six o'clock at the banquet of the Laymen's Associa- 
tion. Do you wonder that the Campaign is progressing in the 
Central Xew York Conference when the cause of the Retired 
Preacher does not have to beg for a hearing, and laymen like 
Brother Transue* bring the message of their devotion ! 

Area Meetixgs 

In addition to the meeting of the representatives of the 
six Conferences of the Buffalo Area, called by Bishop Burt, 
I had held two meetings at Syracuse in preparation for the 
Annual Conference. Every District Superintendent of the 
Conference is at this Convention: Mills, Pittman, Brown, 
Eiegel. The Conference did not beg off from their duty to 
their Eetired Brethren, but asked for the full disciplinary 
apportionment — enough money to pay present claims in full. 
In this the Conferences have not been playing fair with their 
aged brethren. The Bishops' claim, the District Superintend- 
ents' claim and the Pastors' claim are asked for at one hun- 
dred cents on the dollar, as they should be, but the laity are 
being asked to pay only forty, sixty or seventy cents on the 
dollar of the claims of the Eetired Preachers. Unless Pastors, 
District Superintendents and Bishops are ready to accept their 
own claims on the basis of forty, sixty or seventy cents on 
the dollar, they ought not to be willing that the Eetired 
Preachers should have their claims discounted. This is not 
laying an added burden on the pastoral charges. The ohli- 
gation is now there, unmet, and the 1915 CAMPAIGX is 
to help the la}Tnen fulfill their responsil)ility to the entire 
Ministry. 

On Saturday night a representative of the "Washington 
Times came to me. He had been assigned the duty of 



NO HAED LUCK STOEIES 345 

writing the story of the Convention. After he had been given 
the information he came to seek, he said that he would like 
some "human interest" or "hard luck stories/' some statement 
of the poverty and penury of the old Preachers. I showed 
him the larger vision and meaning of the Campaign, and 
said: "My brother, the Methodist Church is not dealing 
out hard luck stories. We have gone beyond that. It is true 
that some Methodist Preachers are poor, but they consider 
their poverty ^in executive session' and enjoy the luxury of 
keeping their poverty to themselves. We are not pleading 
poverty ; we have no ^hard luck' stories to tell ; we are a party 
of Christian gentlemen, ministers and laymen, members of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, who have mutual obliga- 
tions, which we are seeking to meet fairly and squarely, not 
on the basis of hard luck stories, nor the plea to pity the poor 
old penniless Preacher, but on the basis of the righteousness 
of the claims of the Veteran Ministers and the joyful willing- 
ness of the laymen of the Methodist Episcopal Church to 
meet in full all the obligations of the Discipline." A fine 
article on the retiring competency for Eetired Ministers ap- 
peared the next day. 

A Laymen's Movement 

It is well to remember, when speaking of the Disciplinary 
provisions for Conference Claimants, that half of the mem- 
bers of the General Conference who made the legislation 
were laymen and that the Magna Charta statement that "the 
claim for a comfortable support inheres in the ministry and 
is not invalidated by the retirement," was written by a lay- 
man, Eobert T. Miller. I have yet to find an intelligent 
layman who does not ring true on this question. I have 
never had any difficulty in the Lay Associations or Lay 
Conferences. In three instances, when Annual Conferences 
were asking less than the law required, memorials were sent 
over from the I^ay Conference to the Annual Conference re- 
questing that the full amount be apportioned. 

In another Laymen's Association, when the stewards hesi- 
tated to ask for the full amount, the laymen stated that they 
were not begging off, and would gladly do what the law 
required. At the Rock Eiver Conference a year ago, Dr. 



31G THE RETIRED MIXISTEK 

James Rowe, since gone to his reward, asked, "Dr. Ilingeley, 
how much money must the churches of the Rock River Con- 
ference raise in order to pay the chiims in full?" They had 
heen apportioning $15,000. I replied, "$30,000." The ap- 
portionment was fixed at $30,000, and they paid their 
Claimants ten thousand dollars more this year than last, and 
commissioned the Rev. C. A. Kelley to raise $500,000 for the 
Preachers' Aid Society. 

The West Ohio Conference Commission recommended a 
campaign for $400,000. The Conference Trustees lowered 
tlie recommendation to $300,000, but the Conference made it 
$500,000. 

l^KOMi.sEs Ri:alizi::u ix Cash 

I hope that 1)}^ the time this Convention closes every one of 
us will be so filled with determination and entlmsiasm that the 
Spring Conferences Avill put themselves into line, and that 
what is needed shall be accomplished throughout the entire 
Church: Enougli money to meet all ohli(jalions in full. I am 
thankful that we are at last seeing the whole Church mov- 
ing as one body. We have the natural leadership, that 
of our Bishops and District Superintendents, and the whole 
Church, laymen and preachers, are forwarding the work, not 
merely because some aged or poor man needs help, but because 
the Methodist Episcopal Church would so meet its obligations 
to the Ministry that the young man who takes his first vows 
shall know that if he serves God in the Methodist Ministry 
until old age comes, the Methodist Episcopal Church has the 
money invested to take care of him until God shall call him 
home. And there will be the delightful thought for the young- 
man that while he is waiting the eligibility of old age, the 
income on the money will be providing for other blessed 
brethren, and that when he passes along, generations of Meth- 
odist Preachers will be strengthened for their duty with the 
knowledge that the money is there. 

The promises are good enough to rejoice the heart. Let us 
cash these promises, not only for the ohl man sitting in the 
front pew, but for ourselves as well, for to-morrow our dull 
ears will make us seek the front pews ; and for generations of 
young preachers wdiom w^e would lure into the Ministry. 



TT] R NEW EMniASIS 



31^ 



THE N^EW EMrilASIS 

One of the most helpful things coiuiected with the present 
campaign is the fact that the emphasis is heing put at a 
new place. The old plea, ^^pity the poor old preacher" on 
account of his poverty has been supplanted by the new plea 
to help enable the Methodist Episcopal Church to make good 
its promises to the Eetired Preachers. The liabilities for 
Conference Claimants can be determined by any accountant 
who reads the law and understands the situation. The re- 
sources can be determined from published reports; the l)al- 
ance, which indicates the net liability, is a matter of subtrac- 
tion of resources from liabilities; and the proposition of the 
1915 CAMPAIGN is to eliminate the net liabilities by 
making the resources equal to the liabilities. 

As far as the American Conferences are concerned the 
gross liabilities to-day are about $1,600,000; the gross re- 
sources are less than $1,100,000, which makes the net 
liabilities in excess of $500,000. On account of unwilling- 
ness to face the proposition of so great a net liability, there 
has been a tendency in the Conferences not to state the entire 
gross liability. This ostrich-like custom of burying the head 
in the sand has ceased, and the laymen, especially, are de- 
manding that the full liabilities be stated, and are placing 
themselves on the platform of the most rigid honor and 
honorable dealing with all claimants. They are rebuking 
the foolish habit of the ministers, who alone can fix the 
apportionments for the pastoral charges, standing between 
the layman's duty and his pocketbook. They feel fully 
competent to defend their own purses and are saying to the 
ministers, "Tell us what the Veterans need and the law re- 
quires, and we will show that our professions of love to the 
aged Ministers are more than sentiment." 

How often this note was struck at the Convention ! 
Bishops, Preachers, laymen, all sang the song of GPATI- 
TUDE and JUSTICE in the same key. Every Bishop that 
spoke rang true to the fact of the Church's duty to provide^ 
for the Petired Ministers. Laymen declared that the Clnircli 
was ready honestly to pay its debts to the Veterans and 
gratefully recognized their obligations; and the Preachers 
on the program, from opening to close, opened the eyes of ail 



348 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

to the vision of the great Church recognizing its supreme 
o])ligations and meeting them in the sj)irit of loyal and 
loving gratitude. 



EFFICIEXCY 

The relation of suitable provisions for Retired Preachers to 
"efficiency" of the ]\Iinister was greatly emphasized. Dean 
Birney, of the Boston School of Theology, presented the 
relation of the ministerial pensions to the call to preach. Dr. 
Joseph W. Van Cleve made an exceedingly strong presenta- 
tion of the fact that it was far better for efficiency in the 
Church of God that the Church provide for the old age of 
its ministers and require them to make investments in them- 
selves for a larger efficiency instead of starving mind and 
spiritual impulses by the processes of meager savings for the 
'^rainy day." Bishop McConnell in liis usual clear and lucid 
manner urged the same matter at the Inauguration Meeting. 



THE CLIMAX OF THE CAMPAIGN 

The General Conference assigned the Campaign for Five 
Million Dollars to this quadrennium, during which occurs 
the One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of American 
Methodism. Nineteen hundred and fifteen has been made the 
Campaign Year, and the spring Conferences will have just 
a full year to complete their canvass. At the convention 
the Rev. E. L. Watson, D.D., District Superintendent of the 
Baltimore AVest District, made a very fitting suggestion that 
the one hundredth anniversary of Asbury's death, March 31, 
191G, be set for the climactic ending of the Campaign. 

Never was a suggestion more timely or more valuable or 
that carried in itself a larger meaning than that the one year 
of one hundred and fift}^ vears of mas^nificent history, which 
is to be devoted to this ^IXHERENT, FOREMOST AND 
SUPREME Claim should conclude with the anniversary of 
the death of the great founder of American Methodism. 




APPROACHING A 
CRISIS 

MR. JUDSON L. TRANSUE 

Williamson, N. Y. 



I am deeply interested in the care of Retired Ministers be- 
cause I know M^hat Methodist Ministers have had to undergo 
in order to bring to ns our glorious heritage, because my 
father preached the blessed gospel of Jesus Christ for fifty 
years and never received a salary of over eight hundred 
dollars a year. I know what it means for a man to give his 
life to the Church and bring up a family of seven children 
on such a stipend, and I am free to confess that I do not see 
how it was done, except through God's help. When Christ- 
mas came I have seen the anxious look upon the faces at the 
head of the table, who were wondering what the little ones 
would have for Christmas; but I have seen these same faces 
light up with joy wlien they had given their lives to the work 
and had seen sinners come to the altar and yield their hearts 
to the Lord; and have heard them say, "It is worth all it 
cost; and it has not cost more than it ought to have cost.'' I 
cannot recall a single grumble through all those years, nor a 
single regretful expression except, "I wish we could have done 
more." They preached the Gospel, and, thank God ! lived it. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church is facing a crisis. From 
my outlook, which is not very great, it seems to me that the 
question of providing for the Veteran Preachers must be 
settled before we can expect God to pour out His blessings 
upon the Church. We stand before a neglected duty, and if 
we shrink back from doing it, from putting on the altar of 
God a sufficient sum of money to take care of these men, God 
will turn away from us. I have looked over the Conference 
minutes and counted the number of members, and have con- 
sidered their efforts year after year and the very few addi- 
tions to the Church, and have asked myself, "What is the 
matter? Something must be wrong." And as I have sur- 

349 



350 THE EETIEED MINISTEK 

veyed the field and have seen how little has heen done for the 
aged Ministers, it has seemed to me that the Church must 
take care of these men or there will be no use for the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church in the future. God will withdraw His 
blessing from her. AVe have been very careful about one 
thing; as a friend expressed it concerning another Church, 
that "the people thought the Ministry should be poor and 
pious, and, if the Lord would keep the Preachers pious, the 
laymen would attend to the other part and keep them poor." 

We are facing the problem of raising five million dollars 
for Conference Claimants, a big sum, of course, but not a 
dollar a member for our constituency. I wish that when 
we representatives of the Conferences return home we would 
say : Here is the plan. Let one hundred thousand mem- 
bers of the Methodist Church give fifty dollars a year for 
five years. For I "^ould rather have one hundred thou- 
sand members give fifty dollars than to have ten or fifteen 
men give the whole sum. It seems to me that in our work 
we have expected to get big sums from the few rather than 
small sums from a great many. If these men would 
give this money, the Lord would pour out His blessing upon 
them and upon the whole Church and the problem of financ- 
ing all our enterprises would be settled. Fifty dollars a 
3'ear from one hundred thousand members can be secured. 
We have two hundred thousand dollars in our Conference, 
and I believe that we will not stop with less than the three 
hundred thousand dollars and will then go on to half a million. 

It can be done. I would like to see this movement sweep 
tlirough Methodism. The other Boards would not become 
l)overty-stricken, but the gifts would go next year to some 
other cause and the next year to another. There is nothing 
that opens a man's heart to the gospel so quickly or so widely 
as giving to the great causes of the Church. But first of all 
we ought to provide for the men who made it possible for us 
to have the Church. If one hundred thousand men during 
this year would lay fifty dollars apiece upon the altar for 
the Veterans' Cause, I believe the Lord would pour out such a 
l)lessing upon them that they could not contain it, and it 
would bubble over and bless others, and we would have such 
revival as we have not seen for generations. Let us do it ! 

Williamson, X. Y. J. L. Traxsue. 




THE 1915 CAMPAIGN 

THE GERMAN CONFERENCES 

THE REV. J. A. MULFINGER, D.D. 

Recording Secretary- 
Board of Conference Claimants 



The ten German Conferences of the Methodist Episcopal 
Chnrch in America have not been dilatory in taking iip the 
matter of adequately caring for Conference Claimants. For 
a number of years they have been seeking to provide a better 
support for these Veterans of the Cross by organizing Preach- 
ers^ Aid Societies and building up permanent funds in every 
Annual Conference. 

The Conferences in Germany were fortunate in having 
men as their founders, who from the beginning recognized 
the imjDortance of this cause, and who instituted a pension 
system by which the Conferences are able to-day to grant an 
adequate support based on years of service to ministers retir- 
ing from the effective ranks. The money needed to do this 
is derived from the income of their own Book Concern and 
from Permanent Funds which have been accumulating from 
the beginning through annual payments made by the preach- 
ers. Moneys received from other sources are distributed 
according to need. 

The German Conferences in this country have adopted 
plans by which they hope to secure sufficient funds to provide 
fully for their Conference Claimants. There is a Permanent 
Fund in every Conference, the total amount in 1914 being 
$287,800. The income derived from these funds in 1914 
amounted to $1G,000; but, in spite of this, not a single Con- 
ference Claimant in the ten Conferences received last year the 
full annuity or pension. The average full legal annuity rate 
was $10, but on an average, only $3.G1 a year was paid to 
the 2G7 Conference Claimants: 123 Retired Ministers and 
144 widows and dependent cliildrcn of deceased preachers. 

351 



352 THE KETIRED MIXISTER 

The total amount needed in 1911 by the German Confer- 
ences in the United States in order to pay all claims, both 
for annuitants and necessitous cases, was $63,300; and the 
reports indicate that only $41,900 of this amount was paid, 
leaving a deficit of $21,500. This sum must be added to the 
annual resources before these Conferences can pay the claims 
at one hundred cents on the dollar. For this reason the 
German Conferences are entering enthusiastically into the 
1915 CAM PAT GX. They need more money in their Con- 
ference permanent funds, producing a larger annual income 
for Conference Claimants; and they must have a larger in- 
come from other sources. The total amount of investments 
should be increased to at least $500,000 ; and meanwhile the 
apportionments to the pastoral charges should be increased 
to a sufficient amount to provide for the men who are now 
on the Honor Eoll. As the endowment income increases the 
apportionment can be decreased. If this increase is made 
the Conferences will be able to fully meet all claims; but 
we must not overlook the fact tliat the number of Claimants 
is slowly increasing and for that reason we should greatly 
increase invested funds. 

The German Conferences held in 1914 committed them- 
selves to the great 1915 CAM PAX GX by unanimously in- 
dorsing the plans of the Board of Conference Claimants 
and by inaugurating a campaign within the bounds of each 
Conference for the purpose of increasing the amount of per- 
manent funds, and also by increasing the apportionments. 
An agent has been appointed in almost every Conference and 
the ministers have pledged themselves to loyal support. 

The rank and file of the German preachers have done heroic 
work in laying foundations and extending the borders of our 
great Church. The pioneers of German Methodism were 
heroes who dared and accomj^lished great things for God. 
Their names are worthy of being placed in the Hall of Fame 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church. They suffered great 
privations and hardships, and sacrificed their all upon the 
altar of God and the Church. The Church fully appreciates 
the value of their untiring and strenuous labors in bringing 
to the Germans arriving on our shores a personal knowledge 
of the saving power of Christ and getting them into the 
Church. 



GEEMAN CONFERENCES 353 

German Methodists are a valuable addition to the entire 
connection, and are numbered among the most generous sup- 
porters of all of our benevolent enterprises. The pioneer 
preachers received a mere pittance for support; and e^en at 
the present time the average salary of the German preachers 
is hardly $700. Still most of them have economized to such 
an extent as to become examples to their flocks in benevolent 
offerings; have fed and clothed their usually large families, 
and have managed to give to their children the advantage 
of a higher education. Besides this as a rule they have laid 
by a small sum of money or acquired a modest home for old 
age. We sometimes marvel and ask, "How did they ever 
do it?" 

We would like to mention all of the names upon their 
Honor Eoll, but space will not allow : Nast, Jacoby, Nuelsen, 
Eiemenschneider, Plank, Mulfinger, Kuhl, Fiegenbaum, 
Kopp, Eothweiler, Lyons, Koch, all of whom have joined 
the great throng of witnesses before the throne of God and 
are now a part of the cloud of witnesses who rejoice in the 
triumphs of the Church. What a heritage they have left ! 
What an incentive their lives have been to all ! They do not 
need financial support; but others who served with equal 
heroism and fidelity have followed in their train and are 
now on the retired list, waiting for the call of the Master ; and 
the Church owes to them a comfortable and generous support 
in old age. Are we willing to pay this debt ? Will the Church 
respond to the Appeal made by the Bishops in their behalf? 
Are they at last coming to their own? 

We firmly believe that this Appeal will meet with a gener- 
ous and loyal response from every German member of our 
Church, and that the close of the 1915 CAMPAIGN will find 
all German Conferences in position to pay in full every claim 
of their Conference Claimants. 

We append a table showing what the German Conferences 
have accomplished in providing an adequate support for 
their Conference Claimants and indicating their present 
needs. 

Survey of the German Conferences, 1914 

In these tables units are eliminated in the last column, and 
both tens and units in the other columns. 



354 



THE EETIEED MIXISTER 



Column A gives the amoimt necessary in order to pay 
the ful] disciplinary rate shown in column D, plus the amount 
that would be needed for "necessitous cases." 

Column B includes all amounts for distribution, Avhatever 
their source or method of distribution. 

Column C is the remainder obtained by subtracting the 
sum in column B from the sum in column A, and indicates 
the shortage of the Conference, or its net liability. 

Column D gives the annuity rate according to ^ 331 of 
the Discipline; and column E gives the rate paid in 1914 and 
also the percentage of such rate to the total disciplinary rate. 

Column F states the amount of the permanent endowment 
held by the Annual Conference, and column G the amount 
of the income from such endowment. 



Name of 

Conference 



A 


B 


m 
















.•-. 


as m 


II 


Otal 
nnu 
sset 


HhJ 


H<t;< 



^;3 





D 


^ 












a 


>> 






a 


O oj 


w 


c ^ 




C C3 


Q<ff 



California. . 
Central. . . . 
Chicago . . . 

East 

Northern . . 
Northwest . 
Pacific . . . . 
Saint Louis 
Southern . . 
West 



$3,000 SI 
10,000 
I 7,800 

8,400 

7,500 

4,000 
I 2,100 
111,000 

3,600 

5,900 



600, ?1 



,800 
,400 
.700 
,200 
,600 
,300 
,700 
,300 
,300 



400^0«"c 
200— 12'^c 
400-^3'^'c 
700-44^c 
300— 57<^:c 
400— 35'^c 
900-43^0 
300—30% 
300—36% 
600—12% 



Total 163.300 41,900:21.500 



$10.00 

9.00 

10.00 

13.66 

10.50 

10.00 

9.00 

9.00 

9.00 

9.00 



9 91 



E 

_: ^ 



82.00—20% 
4.00—44% 
2.26—22% 

3 . 64—26% 
5 . 20—50% 
2.08—21% 
5 . 80—64% 
3.50—38% 

4 . 55 — 50% 
3.10—35 



3 61— 37% 



c c £ 
c o £■ 









$12,800! 
55,300 
49,000 
33,300 
19,400 
21,800 

5,200 
50,000 

5,000 
31,000 



£730 
4,600 
1,400 
2,350 
1.030 
1,1.0 

2^0 
2.880 

320 
1,400 



287,800 16.110 



Chicago, 111. 



J. A. MULFIXGER. 




EIN WOHLVERDIEN- 
TER LOHN 

THE REV. ADAM J. LOEPPERT, D.D. 

Chicago German Conference 



"Was lange wahrt, wird endlich gut/^ so mag mancher 
ansrufen, der nun wahrnimmt, wie die Veteranen im Pre- 
digtamte der Bischoflichen Methodistenkirche zu ihrem 
Eechte kommen und ihnen ein wohlverdienter Lohn winkt. 
Die Kirche ist erwacht, wie noch nie vorher; dem verdienst- 
vollen Veteran, der zn seiner Zeit in der Vollkraft der Jahre 
in den vordersten Eeihen der heissen Schlacht gekampft, 
dabei aber meistens sich und die Seinen vergessen hat, will 
sie ihre Dankesschuld bezahlen, sodass ihm der Lebensabend 
nicht in bangen Sorgen ins Auge starrt. Die Kirche mit 
ihren erkenntlichen Gliedern am Leibe Jesu Christi hat 
diese edlen Helden in den heiligen Dienst des Predigtamtes 
berufen. Dem Euf der Kirche sowie dem unwiderstehlichen 
Eufe Grottes folgten sie und weihten sich ausschliesslich der 
heiligen Arbeit. Nie erwartete die Kirche von ihnen, dass 
sie sich in Verbindung mit ihrer Arbeit weltlichen Geschaften 
widmen sollten, denn das Predigtamt ist ganz naturgemiiss 
kein weltlicher Beruf. Gott ver stand auch nie darunter, dass 
seine Knechte im IJeberfiuss oder gar im Luxus leben sollten, 
noch dass die Dinge dieser Erde ihre Zeit, Kriifte und 
Gedanken in Anspruch nahmen. Um das Letztere zu ver- 
huten, ist es fiir unsere Kirche von grosster Wichtigkeit und 
ihre heiligste Pflicht, diesem dienstunfahigen Soldaten, wenn 
er auch in aktiver Tiitigkeit viel Selbstverleugnung geiibt 
hat, einen sorgenfreien Lebensabend zu gewiihren, sodass 
er nicht der notwendigsten Lebensbediirfnisse wegen darben 
muss, oder wenn er gar schon vorzeitig von seiner Arbeit 
abgerufen wird, seine sich aufopfernde Gattin und seine 
Kinder von der Gnade und Barmlierzigkcit der Kirche 
abhangig siiid, der er selbstaufopfcriul godiont hat. 

Keine andere Kirchengemeinschaft fordert so viel von 

355 



356 THE EETIPiED MIXISTEE 

ihren Predigern und deren Eamilien wie die Methodisten- 
kirche, zumal werm. man das Eeisepredigtamt mit seinen 
Freuden und Leiden in Betracht zieht. So sollte es auch 
gar nicht schwierig sein, die Frage anfznTverfen iind zn 
beant^orten : "AVorin bestehen die Terdienste unserer 
Yeteranen V^ 

Die ^lethodistenprediger sind den einzelnen Seelen nach- 
gegangen. Beobachte unsere dentschen Pioniere. Die Ein- 
wanderer Traren entu*eder lutherisch, reformient oder katho- 
lisch; mit personlichen Erfahrungschristentiim waren sie 
nicht bekannt. So reiste der Prediser oft dreissis:, vierzis: 
oder gar fiinfzig Meilen weit anf den Prilrien und in den 
Urwaldern lierum, snchte die einzelnen dentschen Familien 
aiif und war zeitweilis: wochenlans: von seiner Familie fort. 
Kein Sturm und Ungemach storte ihn in seiner herrlichen 
Arbeit, denn *' Seelen retten war sein Beruf' und '^'ehe ihm, 
wenn er das Evangelium nicht den armen Siindern brachte." 
Er setzte oft sein Leben aufs Spiel in der Organisation der 
ersten Gemeinden und musste unermiidlich arbeiten, bis 
die junge, doch bald kraftige, Pflanze zum starken Baum 
herangewachsen war, unter dessen Schatten die heutige 
Generation wohnen kann. Doch darf hier nicht vergessen 
werden, dass es heute eben so schwer ist, den Baum zu 
pflegen, und die einzelnen Seelen diirfen nicht vernachlassigt 
werden. 

Unsere Yeteranen waren immer reich an Werken der Liebe 
und der Barmherzigkeit. Man denke doch an die Armut 
der Dentschen vor fiinfzig Jahren. Wie gross war die Xot. 
Die Glieder der einzelnen Gemeinden sind im Laufe der Jahre 
wohlhabend geworden, doch der Prediger, der seinen geringen 
Besitz immer wieder mit den Aemisten teilte, die an seine 
Tiire kamen, blieb arm. Der brave Mann dachte an sich 
zuletzt und dann war's zu spiit. Xie hat er den Bettler ein 
Almosen verweigert, auch hatte er stets ein Bett und Zimmer 
fiir den fremden oder befreundeten Ga-t, wenn man sich 
audi wundern musste, wo der geistiiche Herr und seine 
Familie die Xacht zubrachten. Und wie viel hat er erst 
fiir das "W^erk der heiligen Mission und Wohltatigkeitsbestre- 
bungen aller Art getan? Er hat als !Mittel des Heiligen 
Geistes den ersten Trieb in den strebsamen Knaben hin- 
eingelegt, sich dem TVerke der Heidenmission zu widmen. 



EIN WOHLVEEDIENTEE LOHN 357 

Das bliihende Werk in Deutschland und der Schweiz verdankt 
ihm seinen Aiifang. Er legte den Grund zu unseren Schnlen 
nnd Lehranstalten. Wer hatte an Waisenhauser oder gar 
Altenheimaten gedacht nnd dieselben nach ihrer Griindnng 
Tinterstiitzt nnd deren Interessen vertreten, wenn es nicht 
fiir jene Veteranen, die damals noch in ihrer Vollkraft des 
Lebens standen, gewesen ware? 

Und in den Werken der Wohltatigkeit, der Griindnng von 
Anstalten aller Art, das jlingste Kind, die edle Sache der 
Diakonie, dnrchans niclit zn vergessen, hat der Prediger nie 
karglieh gesat, noch sparlich gegeben, sondern immer iiber 
Bitten nnd Verstehen nnd hanfig weit iiber seine Krafte 
hinans. In der Sammlnng der Missionsgelder ging er mit 
gnten Beispiel voran nnd in den Unterschriften fiir den 
Ban nener Kirchen, Fnndiernng von Lehrstiihlen nnd in 
Ansstattnng von Krankenzimmern in Hospitalern stand sein 
Name nicht nnten in der Liste. 

Sie haben ihre Arbeit nnter grossen Selbstverlengnnngen 
getan. Sie hatten versprochen, zn gehen, wohin die Kirche 
sie sendet. Und mit dem Eesnltat waren sie fast ansnahmslos 
zn frieden. Ein andrer Arbeiter kann ja nach Belieben seine 
Arbeit oder seinen Wohnplatz wahlen; nicht so der Meth- 
odistenprediger. Er mnss bleiben. Wehe ihm, wenn er das 
Evangelinm nicht predigt. Und wer denkt an die A^erlnste 
beim Ziehen? Wer an die Opfer der Predigerkinder in den 
Wechsel der Schnlen und die Argnsangen, die an ihnen 
immer nnr Zielscheiben der Kritik sehen? Wer erst an die 
Opfer der edien Predigersf ranen ? Und ich wage hier zn 
behanpten, dass ihre Arbeit nnd ihre Opferwilligkeit heute 
wie vor dreissig oder fiinfzig Jahren, der ihrer Manner eben- 
biirtig znr Seite steht, wenn sie dieselbe in vieler Beziehnng 
nicht gar iiberragt. Nimmermehr will nnsere grossherzige 
Kirche dieser edlen Schaar der tapfersten Frauen, die je 
nnter Christi Krenzesfahne kampfte, die Sorgenlast noch 
erschweren, sondern die Steine ans dem Wege riiumen und 
ihnen den wohlverdienten Lohn geben. Tansende unserer 
besten Glieder und Familien in der Kirche haben es niichst 
dem lieben Gott den Predigern zu verdanken, dass sie sind, 
was sie sind. 

Die Methodistenkirche hat etwa 3,000 ausgediente Predi- 
ger, 3,000 Predigerswittwen und 300 Predigerwaisenkinder, 



858 THE RETIRED MINISTER 

in mnder Summe 6,300 Personen, die von der Mildtatigkeit 
der Kirclie abhaiigig sind fiir ihreii ganzen oder teilweisen 
Lebensuiiterhalt. Und wie blutet den Konferenzverwaltern 
oft das Herz, wenn sie nieht reichiich geben konnen, soiidern 
kargiich geben miissen, da nicht J\Iittel genug vorhanden 
Avaren. Nun ist aber die Kirclie zu ihrer Verantwortlichkeit 
erwacht, sodass diese IJnterstiitzung in Zukunft keine Mild- 
tatigkeitsgabe sondern ein wohlverdienter Lohn nnd berecli- 
tigte Pension ist, sodass bald ein jeder altersschwache Predi- 
ger wenigstens die Halfte seines jahrlichen Durchschnitts- 
gehaltes audi jahrlich als wohlverdienten Lohn erhalte. Die 
Generalkonferenz von 1912 hat einen Feldzng nnternommen, 
die Behorde imserer altersschwachen Prediger nnd ebenfalls 
die Bischofe haben denselben gntgeheissen, naeh welchem 
im Jahre 1915 fiinf Millionen Dollars als stehendes Kapital 
in den versehiedenen Konferenzen unserer Kirclie gesammelt 
werden sollen, ein Fonds, der Zinsen genug abwerfen dlirfte, 
um den berechtigten Anspriichen gerecht werden zu konnen. 

Dr. Joseph B. Hingeley, der unermiidliche korrespondier- 
ende Sekretar der Behorde fiir Konferenzanspruchhabende, 
verrichtet eine edle Arbeit und setzt sich in derselben ein 
Lebensmonument, indem er als weiser Stratege vorangeht, 
den wohlverdienten Lohn auf eine sichere Basis zu bringen. 
Und, Gott sei Dank, die Kirche bleibt nicht gefiihllos. Die 
Lai en sind genie bereit, sich die Frage vorzulegen : "Was 
kaiin ich tun?" Dadurch erfiillen wix nur ein gottliches 
Gesetz. Vom Stamme Levi erwartete das Volk und der Herr, 
dass er sich vom Zehnten nahren sollte, nachdem er seine 
ganze Zeit und Kraft dem Dienste der alttestamentlichen 
Kirche weilite. Jesus sagte bestimmt: "Der Arbeiter ist 
seines Lohnes wert.'^ Je naher wir diesem gottlichen 
Prinzipe kommen, desto eher konnen wir als Kirche erwarten, 
dass die Knechte Gottes ihre ganze Zeit und Kraft dem 
jetzigen Geschlecht widmen. Auch wird die Riickwirkung 
auf die Kirche selbst eine wohltuende sein, indem nicht nur 
das Predigtamt gebiihrend geehrt und geachtet wird, sondern 
unsere Jiinglinge werden bereitwilliger dem Rufe Gottes 
folgen, ihr Leben in den Dienst cles grossten Herrn zu stellen. 
Und ware ein solch wohlverdienter Lohn nicht des gross- 
ten Opfers wert? 

Chicago, 111. Adam J. LoEPrERT. 



i 




THE 1915 CAMPAIGN 

THE SWEDISH CONFERENCES 

THE REV. HERMAN YOUNG 

Eastern Swedish Conference 



We have in this country six Swedish Methodist Episcopal 
Conferences with a church membership of over twenty thou- 
sand; with twenty-two thousand Sunday school scholars and 
one hundred and sixt^'^-seven ministers. The Conference 
Claimants funds of the six Conferences amount to $29,300. 
A great many of our Retired Ministers and many now in 
effective work labored for years in connection with English 
speaking Conferences, and when we started our own Confer- 
ences we came with empty hands. The Eastern Swedish 
Conference, only fourteen years old, has members who have 
been in effective work between thirty and thirty-eight years. 

In our six Conferences we have twenty-three superannuated 
ministers and about the same number of widows and de- 
pendent children. The collections last year were $3,330. 

The average salary of the several Conferences varies 
greatly; but that of all the Swedish preachers in this country 
is about $700, which fixes the full claim after thirty-five years 
of service at $350, or ten dollars per year. Most of our Con- 
ferences now pay full rate. That this is in many cases insuffi- 
cient, I do not need to say, as many of our brethren have not 
been able to lay aside anything for old age, and most of the 
preachers now in the work are barely able to support their 
families, even by the exercise of the strictest economy. The 
seemingly dark prospect for the sure oncoming of old age has 
been the reason why several of our ministers have left our 
ranks, and, although we do not approve of their course, the 
fact still remains and the remedy must be found. We 
are a part of the great Church, and because Christian work 
must be carried on in America in the Swedish' language for 
years to come, we believe that Methodism should not gi^■e over 
the field to others, but should continue to carry on our work. 

359 



360 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

The question is not whether religious work is to be carried 
on in America in the Swedish language, but whether the 
gospel according to Methodist doctrine and principles shall 
be proclaimed in that tongue or whether we will allow other 
denominations to do the work which God has providentially 
given us, or allow religious fakirs to ensnare our people. But 
in order to continue our work in the Methodist Episcopal 
Church the brethren who enter our ministry, many of whom 
are born in this country and have good opportunities in other 
lines of work, must feel that there is security for their future. 

Because many of our people are of the toilers with little 
hope of independence in old age, the Claimants pension idea 
has not been and is not received as hospitably as it should be, 
but we hope that tlie 11)15 CAMPAIGN will reach the Swedish 
Methodists and be the means of awakening them to their 
responsibilities and duty in this respect. 

May 14, 1915, will be the seventieth anniversary of the day 
when the first Swedish Methodist minister, the Eev. 0. G. 
Hedstrom of the New York Conference, preached his first 
Swedish sermon in the old Bethel ship "John Wesley" which 
lay in New York harbor and thereby started the work of 
Methodism among the Swedish people of America; and I 
hope that the one hundred and fiftieth year of American 
Methodism and the seventieth anniversary of Swedish-Amer- 
ican Methodism may be made forever notable as the year in 
which the claims of all the Veteran Preachers will be met. 

At a general convention of Swedish Methodist Ministers, 
held at Evanston, 111., last June, and attended by represen- 
tative ministers and la}Tiien from all our Conferences, a plan 
was presented and discussed as to the possibility of uniting 
the invested funds of all our Conferences and paying claims 
of all our Retired Ministers according to the average salary of 
all the effective preachers which, as stated above, is $700. 
Such an arrangement would be a help in case of transfers 
from one Conference to another, which are more frequent 
among us than in the English-speaking Conferences, and 
would bind us more closely together in all our work. We re- 
joice in our membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
and confidentlv expect that all our congregations will fall into 
line with the 1915 CAMPAIGN. 

422 Dean St., Brooklyn, N. Y. Herman Young. 




VOR GJELD TIL DE 

UDTJENTE PREDI- 

KANTER 

H. K. MADSEN 

Norwegian ani Danish Conference 



Era den amerikanske borgerkrig f ortelles f 0lgende historie : 
En dag kom general Grant marscherende med sine batallioner 
forbi en liden hytte, beboet af en gammel kvinde. Da hun 
ilk 0ie paa soldaterne, styrtet hun nd med ildrageren paa 
sin skulder og fylket sig ind i geledet. Soldaterne lo og 
spurgte, hvad hun vilde: "Aa/' sa den gamle, "kan jeg ikke 
gj0re mere, saa kan jeg da vise, paa hvilken side jeg staar, 
for eller imod slavetrafiken.-'' Hnn tog et standpnnkt, og 
det er ikke saa lidet. Dersom alle mennesker vilde ta et 
standpunket, saa vilde verdn bli m^eget bedre, og iser om de 
lig denne kvinde tog det rette. 

For nerverende kalder vor elskede kirke, gjennem raadet 
for konferencefordringshavere, paa sine s0nner og d0tre for 
at samle et fond paa 5 millioner dollars til fordel for de 
udtjente predikanter og deres efterladte. De fleste af kirkens 
aarskonferencer har slnttet sig til denne velsignelsesrige 
bevegelse, der staar under den i alle henseender dygtige, og 
serlig for denne sag saa vel kvalificerede mands ledelse, Dr. 
Joseph Hingeley, hovedsekreteren for raadet for konference- 
fordringshavere. 

Som norsk-danske methodister raader vi ikke over store 
midler; men om vi kun vil gj0re, som kvinden gjorde, fylke 
OS ind i geledet, stille os paa den rette side, bli med i 
bevegelsen for det store maal, en sorgl0s alderdom for de 
udtjente predikanter, og gj0re det lille vi kan, saa er det 
alt, som ventes af os. 

Vi maa vere med. Pligten byder os; thi vi skydder de 
udtjente predikanter saa uendelig meget. Vi skylder dem 
respekt og agtelse for den store gjerning, de har udf0rt. Vi 
skylder dem beundring og kjerlighed for deres store opof reiser 
og noble virke. Husk dog, vi skal ikke clske bare med store 

361 



362 THE EETIRED MINISTER 

ord og vakre fraser, men i handling, og derfor skylder kirken 
dem et sorg0st livsophold paa deres ganile dage. 

Tenk paa, hvad disse veteraner har of ret! De har tjent 
kirken og sine medmennesker hele sit liv for en liden l0n, 
saa de ofte har maattet negte sig og sine det niest n0d'\'endige. 
De fieste af dem har veret udrustet med evner og uddannelse, 
saa de kunde fyldt vigtige og l0nnende stillinger i samfundet. 
Men de agtet alt for skarn at vere mod ypperligheden af at 
forkynde Kristi e^•angelium. Det er derfor kirkens nsvigelige 
pligt at s0rge for dem, naar de ikke lengere kan gj0re det selv. 

Xogle vil muligens sige, de gamle prester har tjent ligesaa 
meget, som de fieste af os. Meget mnlig ; men glem saa ikke, 
at medens de var i arbeidet for Gud og kirken, blev mange 
krav stillet til dem, som var forbundet med store udgifter. 
De var kirkens representanter og maattee altid vere pent og 
anstendige kledte. Deres hjem var gjestfrie med stadig 
dekkede borde. Folket kom og gik. Var nogen i n0d, saa 
gik de ikke prestens d0r forbi. Til ham kom de f0rst, og 
ofte maatte ban laane for at hjelpe andre. Heraf forstaaes 
let, at det var omtrent umuligt at legge noget tilside for 
alderdommens dage. 

De gav, hvad de havde. Mnligens de ofte maatte sige : 
"Guld og s0lv har jeg ikke ; men hvad jeg har, det giver jeg 
dig." De gav et fuldt evangelium, som reddet mange fra 
synd og fattigdom, saa de er rige idag, medens mange af 
de gamle predikanter er lige fattige som f0r. De gav et rent 
liv, der virket som et bevarende salt i kommunen og sam- 
fundet. De gav sin sympati og kjerlighed, sine smil og sine 
taarer. De gav alt, sine evner og krefter for at l0fte folket 
paa det religi0se, intllektnelle og materielle omraade. Med 
andre ord de gav sig selv for andres vel. 

Derfor b0r kirken si til disse gamle hedersmend: Guld 
og s0lv det gir vi nu dig ! saa dn kan sidde Innt og nbekymret 
paa dine gamle dage ved din hjemlige arne og erf are sand- 
heden af Jesu ord : "S0g f0rst Guds rige og bans retferdighed, 
saa skal alle andre ting gives eder." 

Saa kom da, venner, og tag et kraftig tag i det store l0ft 
for det felles maal, saa ogsaa vore egne ndtjente predikanter, 
deres enker og barn kan se en lysere fremtid im0de. 

H. K. Madsen. 

2108 N". Sawyer Avenue, Chicago, 111. 




THE 1915 CAMPAIGN 

COLORED CONFERENCES 

THE REV. W. H. DEAN, D.D. 

Washington Conference 



Every race is dependent upon its leaders; no race more 
than ours. For our race there are few libraries, no highly 
developed press, no superior schools, no large learned class. 
Therefore, for their opinions and their religious and literary 
ideals, the masses are dependent upon their preachers, who 
are indispensable to the growth of the Church and the develop- 
ment of the people. The masses have been led always by a 
small but powerful class of thinkers, and more and more we 
are to be led by the men of our own race. Only trained and 
trusted leaders can adjust the colored race to the peculiar 
conditions among which their lives must be spent. 

But the preacher cannot live on earth, and board in heaven. 
He has a right to and must have a "comfortable support.^' 
He must be able to lay by something for the "rainy day,^' or 
the Church which insists on the devotion of all his time, talent 
and means to its work must see that his old age is secure. He 
must dress himself and family, and educate his children; he 
must keep the choicest literature of the day in his library, 
and be al)le to study and preach, without the distraction of 
worldly cares. Gospel ministers "must live of the gospel." 

But if the man in the active ranks must be taken care of, 
much more must the Church provide for the minister when 
he is retired. This too is imperative. The Church must not 
let the wolf of hunger snarl at the Veteran Minister's door. 

The colored Conferences, nineteen in number in this coun- 
try, are doing relatively little for the support of their Con- 
ference Claimants. Claimants are many, and their needs 
great, but for the most part they are dependent for their sup- 
port on the connectional help furnished by The Book Concern, 
the Chartered Fund and the Board of Conference Claimants. 
In the colored Conferences the permanent investments for 

363 



364 THE RETIRED MINISTER 

Conference Claimants do not amount to $1,500, and when 
you consider what tliese same Conferences do along other 
lines, it is clear that this ought not so to l)e. Dr. E. C. 
Clemans, field representative of the Board, is now meeting 
important groups of the preachers with the proposition that 
the colored Conferences unite to raise an endowment fund 
of $100,000; the money to he held in trust by the Board of 
Conference Claimants and to he administered in behalf of 
the contributing Conferences. The Board will pay at least 
five per cent on the money invested, the income to be paid 
to the several Conferences in proportion to the amount of 
money to their credit. 

The Conferences of Methodism now have invested funds 
amounting to $4,000,000 and are increasing them to $15,- 
000,000. By the arrangement proposed, the colored Con- 
ferences also may have invested funds. The income from them 
will be a very helpful addition to the present income. The 
$100,000 invested by the Board for the colored Conferences 
will secure the future supj^ort of all the j^reachers and will 
mean even more to the men in the effective ranks than those 
who are to-day on the retired list. For example, the South 
Carolina Conference has been receiving a dividend from the 
Board amounting to $300. If that great Conference had 
$10,000 to its credit in the Permanent Fund, it would an- 
nually receive at least $500 in addition to the $300, making 
a total of $800. The perpetuity and safety of the funds would 
be guaranteed. The Bishops who have colored Conferences 
in their areas have endorsed the plan for the $100,000 endow- 
ment fund. Several Conferences have appointed commis- 
sions which are to report plans at the next session of the 
Conferences, so that the 1915 CAMPAIGN may begin im- 
mediately after adjournment. It is intended to raise this en- 
dowment not so much by collections as by subscriptions from 
the well-to-do, both white and colored, by bequests in wills, 
real estate holdings and by the sale of Life Annuity Bonds. 
In this way the colored Conferences will swing into line and 
will have a share in the results. The nineteen colored Con- 
ferences will surely join in this great movement; and the 
money will be raised. Let the slogan be : One Hundred 
Thousand Dollars for the Veterans of the colored Conferences. 

Washington, D. C. W. H. Dean. 




COOPERATION 

THE BISHOPS 

BISHOP THOMAS B. NEELY, D.D., LL.D. 



You do not need to be told that you can count on the 
Bishops for leadership or anything else they can do to for- 
ward the great work of securing an adequate support for 
Conference Claimants. They are already interested, and have 
already expressed themselves as they did at their meeting in 
May. They will take any burden that you may put on them 
that they can possibly carry. A new book by me was printed 
this year called the Minister in the Itinerant System, and the 
principles laid down in that book stand back of the work that 
you have before you at this time. A good deal is being said 
about the layman, and I would not discount him in any par- 
ticular, but w^e must not discount the Minister. The Minister 
is the great business man of the Church, the most important 
factor and the only indispensable factor of the Church; and 
he ought to be made to know when he enters the Ministry of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, that he has certain things 
guaranteed to him, and that the Church will keep its word to 
the very letter. 

In the first place, he is entitled to equitable treatment 
in the matter of his appointment whether he has a call from 
an official Board or not. It is the duty of the administrator 
to give the Preacher his rightful place, if it is within the 
possibilities, and to treat him equitably in the matter of his 
appointment. 

In the second place he has the guaranty of the Church to 
a fair support ; not to a salary, but to a *^comf ortable support" ; 
and that also means equity of treatment. He must be paid 
what he deserves, what his family needs, and wdiat the people 
are able to give. A fair support will cover all these things. 

In the third place, he has a guaranty that when he is 
retired he shall have an annuity or pension from the funds 

365 



366 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

for the support of Conference Claimants. The Church 
promises this and the laymen must underwrite this guaranty 
by providing permanent investments sufficient to make the 
annuity pension promised in the Discipline a dependable 
pension. The Board of Conference Claimants and the 1915 
Jubilee Gift of $10,000,000 must be underwritten by the 
whole Church. I frequently use the word ^'^superannuate" 
because it is a notion of mine that the word "superannuate" 
for a Pastor is more honorable than "retired"; retired is the 
proper word for an officer, but it is not the proper word for 
a Minister who has rendered service. The word "superan- 
nuate" shows that he has rendered service for all the years, 
and more, that he was expected to give effective service; and 
it is therefore as Bishop Merrill declared in 1904, "an honor- 
able title." Retired does not necessarily mean the same. 

The law declares that a certain amount of money should 
go to a Minister as an annuity, or pension based on his 
years of service. The annuity or pension ought to be absolute, 
and just as a veteran soldier takes his* pension without 
anybody putting him through an inquisition as to whether 
he has a few dollars or a shack somewhere, so should the 
Veteran Preacher receive annuity on years of service without 
any impertinent or insulting inquisition. It is not fair when 
the law says to the Preacher, "You will get your annuity in 
proportion to your service," for the Annual Conference not 
to let him have that amount or any amount on that basis. 
He may not always take it, but it is his by right, and nobody 
has any business to ask him to disclose how much money he 
may have buried in an old stocking, or invested elsewhere. 
The Church must see to it that when a young Minister enters 
the Ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church he will be 
sure that nothing shall cut him out of his annuity, and that 
his support shall be as "dependable" as the Church of God 
which promised it. 

Philadelphia, Pa. Thomas B. Xeely. 




COOPERATION, 

DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENTS 

THE REV. FRANK P. PARKIN, D.D. 

District Superintendpnt Central District 
Philadelphia Conference 



Inasmuch as the 1915 CAMPAIGN for five million dollars 
was formally approved at the spring Conference of the 
Bishops held in Philadelphia, it is not inappropriate that a 
District Superintendent from the city of ''Brotherly Love" 
should appear on this Inauguration Program which is so 
full of expressions of love for our Retired Ministers. 

The District Superintendent becomes more and more essen- 
tial to all aggressive movements in Methodism. Thought- 
ful and discriminating students of our history and polity, 
and observers of the evolution now being wrought in our 
Church by the assignment of Bishops to. residential areas, 
are forced to the conclusion that this office is destined to 
become more and more influential. 

The corresponding secretaries of all our great Church 
boards clearly recognize the fact. The following statement, 
which appears at the very head of a recent communication 
sent out by one of our keenest and most far-seeing secre- 
taries, voices their attitude : "No group of men in the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church have so signal an opportunity in this 
age to do the Church a great service as the District Superin- 
tendents. You are becoming increasingly the heij-men to 
whom the Church must look for generalship in pushing its 
advance measures mto the last cliurchJ" 

Assuming, therefore, that this apt phrase "Icey-men" justly 
characterizes the District Superintendents of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, it follows, both logically and actually, that 
unless they shall be genuinely and enthusiastically enlisted 
in this campaign, little of a practical character will be done. 

What can a District Superintendent do to advance this 
campaign ? 

First. He must lay it on the heart and conscieiu'e oL' tlio 

367 



368 THE RETIRED MINISTER 

preacher-in-charge of every appointment on his district, espe- 
cially on the younger men, that, 1[ 556 of the Discipline is 
in force : "The law of the Chnrch in regard to the pro rata 
division of the amounts raised for ministerial support is 
binding, and it is incumbent on the Pastors and District 
Superintendents to see that such pro rata division be made." 

A western editor in the first issue of his paper had this 
motto, ''Vim, vinegar and victory." Without vim no great 
achievement can be accomplished. Even vinegar has its 
legitimate function. It was Josh Billings, that prince of 
all American humorists, who once said: "Every man needs 
just enough vinegar in his constitution to keep the flies of." 

Second. The District Superintendent must see that the full 
amount apportioned to his district be reapportioned by the 
district stewards to the several pastoral charges on a just 
and equitable basis. As a preliminary to this the district 
superintendents should insist that the Annual Conference 
apportion the full amount required to pay the claims at one 
hundred cents on the dollar. 

Third. During the year he should keep in touch with the 
pastors and people and ''stir up their pure minds hy way of 
rememh ranee" that the Retired Preacher must be fully recog- 
nized in the budget for "Ministerial support." Where the 
duplex system has not been inaugurated, "Old Folks^ Day," 
or "Veterans' Day," will furnish a good opportunity for meet- 
ing the ai:>portionment. 

Fourth. In the quarterly conference visitation the laity 
should be instructed as to the justice of the Retired Minis- 
ters' claims, and the request should be openly, frankly and 
earnestly made that this great cause should be remembered 
in their wills. 

Fifth. Proper provisions for the ministry in all denomina- 
tions are related to the problem of Church unity, for without 
such provisions rivalry, spiritual inefficiency and a host of 
good men living on beggarly stipends, are the inevitable 
results, with increased demands upon Conference funds. 

The District Superintendent can cooperate in every move- 
ment toward Church comity. Church federation, and Church 
unity in such a way as to set loose vast amounts of money for 
this noble fund for the aged veterans of the cross. 

Philadelphia, Pa. Ekaxk P. Parkin-. 




COOPERATION 

ANNUAL CONFERENCE ORGANI- 
ZATIONS AND THE BOARD OF 
CONFERENCE CLAIMANTS 

THE REV. S. A. MORSE, D.D. 

Secretary of the Permanent Fund, Genesee Conference 



When a friend expressed to Lord Karnes his regret at his 
ignorance of a particular branch of political economy and 
asked for advice, his Lordship replied: '^Shall I tell you, my 
friend, how you will come to understand it? Go and write 
a book upon it/' Though this is not a book, it is written upon 
the principle expressed by the Scotch judge, for, surely, I 
know little about the subject. But who does know? There 
is no background of experience, or even of observation, for 
a picture of this sort. Imagination must supply the perspec- 
tive. I can hope only to make a few suggestions and start a 
discussion from which the writer may himself receive more 
than his paper can possibly give. 

In the first place, let me emphasize the importance of co- 
operation between the Conference organizations and the Board 
of Conference Claimants. To this end it is essential that 
there be a frank and full recognition of the leadership of the 
Board of Conference Claimants. It is only trite to say that 
large mass-movements require conspicuous headships — head- 
ships charged with abundant power, and clotlied with the 
dignity of vast responsibilities. Lacking this, the masses 
fall apart, going their several ways, working often at cross- 
purposes, if, indeed, they do not actually fall to fighting 
each other. Lacking coherence and coordination, and the 
vision of the general with his glass yonder on the heights, 
the movement is chaotic and ineffective. Instead of Rome, 
Greece might have become the seat of an age-long empire 
had she been willing to recognize some supreme power to com- 
mand and lead. Even when a common peril drove the tribes 
into union, democratic jealousy compelled the change of 
generals every day, even in the face of the foe. Methodism 
is an outstanding illustration of the aggressive force inher- 

3G9 



370 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

ing in an organization of military-like compactness, and mov- 
ing like an army under well-nigh individual control toward 
its objective, the conquest of the world for its Lord and 
Master, Jesus Christ. 

The one great department of Methodism that has suf- 
fered most for lack of coordination and commanding leader- 
ship is the one which relates to the support of the Retired 
Ministers. Xo wonder that we have been confused and be- 
lated ! Treated thus, where would our missionary enter- 
prises be? If in 1819, when we began our foreign missionary 
work, or in 1864, when we began our work of Church Ex- 
tension, we had grappled in a similar way and with like 
vigor with the question of the proper care of our worn-out 
preachers and widows, to-day no member of a Methodist Epis- 
copal Conference, who had served even a moderate length of 
time, would be in danger of hearing the snarl of the gaunt 
wolf of hunger. The wonderfully successful enterprises al- 
luded to above are well-entitled to the name of movements. 
But had they been treated as the cause of the claimant has 
been, the characterization would be grotesquely inaccurate. 
To illustrate the point take a few statistical facts from the 
annals of one Conference, representative, perhaps, of the con- 
ditions in almost any Conference of the Church, which I have 
denominated 

Some Sign'ificant Contrasts 

Genesee Conference — Full Membership: 1852, 10,135. 
1913, 50,907. More than five-fold increase. 

Church and Parsonage Property: 1859, $381,700; 1913, 
$4,608,825. More than a twelve-fold gain. 

Benevolent Giving: 1850, $6,353; 1913, $125,293. Multi- 
plied by more than 18. 

Per Capita Giving for Conference Claimants: 1852, 16 
cents; 1913, 28 J cents. Only If times more. 

Average Payment to ^yorn-out Ministers: 1852, $190.66; 
1913, $2^19.77. Only $29.11 more to each, while cost of liv- 
ing has advanced at least QQ per cent. 

Everything has boomed except the care of the preacher — 
the man who made things go. 

Is this a square deal ? Yerily, no. 

Look again at these figures exponential of growth in that 



ANNUAL CONFEEENCE EEPEESENTATIVES 371 

Conference, and be amazed. There are increases of five-fold, 
twelve-fold, eighteen-fold in certain important items, and 
for the men and women who have made all this possible, 
when retired from the firing-line an increase of but $29 per 
year; and that in the face of an increase of not less than 
66 per cent in the cost of table necessities. Surely, this is 
not a square deal. It is a situation intolerable, especially in 
view of the fact that there has been no adequate increase in 
the average pastoral support. 

A new era dawns. At last the Church is awake. At last 
we have authorized leadership, and relationships somewhat 
articulated. To be sure we are as yet in the infancy of the 
new movement, and we are toddling like babies learning to 
walk. But we are learning, and soon we shall walk and not be 
weary, run and not faint. We have leadersliip well-equipped 
and worthy to be followed. The Board of Conference Claim- 
ants is wisely planning the campaign, and is becoming a sort 
of clearing-house of information and the source of light and 
inspiration for the whole Church. The need of this has long 
been felt by those particularly interested in endowment work. 
Many of us have had a zeal not according to knowledge, 
devising schemes more or less fantastic and Utopian. That 
even that aggregation of wisdom, the General Conference, 
has sometimes been in need of illumination is seen in 
the abortive legislation which had to be thrown into the 
junk heap; and by the method of distribution of Book 
Concern dividends to the Annual Conferences. Our "\Yiten- 
agemot'^ imposed upon the Book Committee the duty of 
dividing these profits among the Conferences on the basis of 
Conference membership; a plan which entirely ignores the 
crucial questions of the number of claimants, and their aggre- 
gate years of service and total annuity claims. The time of 
this ignorance may have been winked at, but now, with 
the light of experience focalized by experts, our quadrennial 
parliament may well be commanded to repent. In such 
matters as these. Conference organizations should be ready to 
hold up the hands of the Board of Conference Chiimants and 
seek to make that body most efficient in its work for the worn- 
out men and women of the itinerancy. Not that individual 
judgment be suspended, or reason abdicate her throne! But, 
having counseled, let us all strike together for remedying 



372 THE IJETIEED MINISTER 

evils which we see. The rules of the game of *^Follow-my- 
leader'^ may be applied to the serious affairs of life'. 

There should be cooperation between the two parties con- 
sidered herein in a matter in which the Conference organiza- 
tions must be the chief gainers. I refer to the creation and 
distribution of an endowment literature. Neal Dow declared 
that, preceding the adoption of the constitutional prohibitory 
amendment in Maine^ he "sowed the State knee-deep with 
literature^' on the subject of intemperance. This great work 
of ours cannot be accomplished without liberal use of printers' 
ink. That is seed from which great harvests often grow. 
Yoimg Erasmus in Paris wrote : "As soon as I get any money 
I shall buy Greek books; tlien I shall buy some clothes." 
Like the great scholar of the Renaissance we must put im- 
mense emphasis upon books, or, at least, upon leaflets, tracts, 
hot shots, printed tastefully and fired frequently. It is the 
age of the printer. AYe can do nothing without him. "Write 
a book/' advised a great orator, "a book is the only immor- 
tality." The printed page is to be a chief portion of our 
campaign ammunition. I am glad that Martin Luther flung 
an ink bottle and not a boot- jack at the devil. Devils of 
opposition born of ignorance and prejudice and selfishness 
may be defeated by pen and ink attacks as by no other kind. 
Now, the Board of Conference Claimants and the local organ- 
izations may do most valuable cooperative work by uniting 
in the production of educative and campaign literature. The 
Board, for example, issues some most excellent pamphlets and 
leaflets which could be used with good advantage in Confer- 
ence campaigns. Among these issues are ^'The Banker's 
Investment/' a leaflet on the life annuity plan; Marvin 
Campbell's able address at the Indianapolis Convention of 
Methodist Men; and latest perhaps, by Dr. Oldham, ''We'll 
Do It." Judge Horton on "Wills" is also valuable. These 
all bear the imprint of the Board of Conference Claimants, 
luit can be printed with the imprint of the Annual Confer- 
ence and in such large quantities as to reduce to a minimum 
the cost of production for Conference organizations. I now 
have in my possession the very low figures quoted for the 
purchase of a tract by Marion Harland on Should Protestant 
Ministers Marry? circulated in large numbers by the Presby- 
terian Board. The last page is blank. It is my thought to 



COOrERATlOX— CONFEEENCES AND BOAED 373 

accept the generous offer of that board, and use the hist page 
to localize and make applicable to our own situation the text 
of the tract. This can be done at much less cost than we 
could possibly produce the pamphlet. Our Board can do 
something of this sort for the local organizations. Besides 
reducing the printing bill of the local organizations this plan 
would tend to supply the Conferences oftentimes with better 
"stuff" than would otherwise be circulated; and would tend 
to ally the general and the local forces in such a way as to 
make the impression of strength, allaying possible jealousies 
that might arise from the seeming conflict of the local forces 
with the general board. It is just possible, on the other hand, 
that the Conference organizations may sometimes print pro- 
ductions which the Board would be wise to use and to give a 
wider distribution through its great circulatory system. 

These principles apply to that excellent quarterly. The 
Veteran Preaclier. My own belief is that we cannot any- 
where conduct a campaign with the greatest success without 
the aid of a periodical issued monthly, or at least quarterly. 
We must get into contact regularly and frequently with our 
constituencies if we are to gain final victory and reach it soon. 
It ought to be possible to publish monthly The Veteran 
Preacher having, say, half of the contents of a character 
applicable to the situation as a whole and the other half made 
up of matter particularly interesting to the people of the 
Conferences using the plan. Of course, this would be upon 
an equitable basis as to cost. With cheap freight rates and 
parcel post charges, this scheme must be practicable. Is it 
too much to hope that some practicable plan may be set afoot 
soon looking to the covering of our whole territory by an 
educational and campaign periodical such as I have spoken of ? 

There is another feature of possible cooperation which, 
on the surface, looks very feasible. I refer to the organiza- 
tion, through the careful consultation of the board with local 
organizations, of a lecture bureau, a corps of men who through 
practice and native ability have become experts in our propa- 
ganda, and who could be called upon at almost any time for 
aid in Conference campaigns. This suppositive flying 
squadron might be chiefly limited to the several episcopal 
areas in the interest of economy. Of course, there is already 
some interchange in the services of such men, but it is upon 



374 THE EETIRED MINISTER 

no organized basis such as would make it most efficient. Such 
a list of available men might be on file in Dr. Ilingeley's 
office, and their names published in The Veter-an Preaclier. 
Of course, no man would make money out of the plan, but 
be content with his expenses. AYe can never repay the men 
who went before us, building a highway for us to travel on, 
and who made the franchise of Conference membership of 
almost inestimable value to us. We are their debtors as 
those who come after us will be indebted to us. Glorious 
debt ! I would like to make it measurelessly large. These 
are but hints, and experience will be required to demonstrate 
their value or otherwise. 

If in this paper I have seemed to emphasize the ways in 
which the Board of Conference Claimants may operate to 
help the local organizations, it is perhaps because this lay in 
the nature of the case. I can at least here record my own 
grateful appreciation of the work of Dr. Hingeley, who is 
sparing neither time nor effort to serve the cause in and 
through the various Conference organizations. Our presence 
here is but one of the many proofs of this. We are glad to 
learn that Conferences are seconding his motion in respect of 
the full apportionment for Conference Claimants. He has 
had to do much preaching to bring about this result. It is 
well that he is persistent. Through this one move alone our 
claimants throughout many sections of the Church will share 
more abundantly than ever before in the benefits resulting 
from an aroused conscience on the subject of what is due our 
pastors emeritus, our corps of honor. This is taking a long 
stride toward the happy time when the great majority of our 
retired men and women will be on the annuity list only, and 
all relief cases will be amply cared for by distribution from 
the general office in Chicago. 

S. A. Morse. 

27 Minnesota Ave., Buffalo, IST. Y. 




CAMPAIGN LEADER 
SHIP: CONFERENCE 
REPRESENTATIVES 

THE REV. W. D. SLEASE, D.D. 

Secretary Permanent Fund, Pittsburgh Conference 



Every enterprise is dependent upon its leadership. If the 
enterprise is laudable and the leadership competent success 
is almost certain; but however laudable the enterprise, if the 
leadership be weak^ failure will be the result. The greatest 
enterprises are the salvation of humanity, the lessening of 
human ills, and the elevation of the moral life. Such leader- 
ship was committed to the apostles and their successors, the 
ministers of the gospel of the Son of God, who are the 
accepted coworkers with God in saving the world and build- 
ing the kingdom of heaven. Since the Church is the great- 
est institution, "an everlasting kingdom," its establishment 
and enlargement is the greatest work committed to men. 
The greatness of this world enterprise demands that its build- 
ers be of the highest type, the best trained workmen that 
nature, culture and grace can produce. The Church says to 
its young men who are called to become its spokesmen, "Give 
me all your strength, all your talent, all your culture, all 
your heart, all of yourself, and I will give you a comfortable 
support throughout your life.'' There are certain demands in 
ordinary life, and certain limitations to human ability, for 
which God has provided. But He demands that His chief 
builders shall not be handicapped in their great work by being 
compelled to go into the business marts to compete for the 
necessary things of ordinary life because He needs all their 
talent, time and effort for the work of His Church. This 
underlying principle of the divine economy is manifested in 
both the old and new covenant systems of building up the 
kingdom of God. 

In the old theocratic economy God made magnificent pro- 
vision for the temporal support of his priests and Levites as 
is shown by the ordinances promulgated by Moses. The same 

375 



376 THE KETllJED MINISTEK 

economic principle is shadowed in the long neglected cove- 
nant of the Methodist Episcopal Church which promises its 
ministers "a comfortahle support." After a century of 
neglect the sense of responsibility to God and of obligation 
to its Veteran Ministers has been revived and Methodism is 
launching a church-wide campaign to enable it to meet its 
obligation, ha\"ing for its slogan, "Five million dollars for 
perpetual investment in behalf of the Eetired Ministers, 
w^idows and orphans/' The enterprise is cooperative and 
intensive and extensive, and will surely succeed if its leader- 
ship is equal to the task. The Board of Conference Claim- 
ants ori2:inated the movement, and must continue in its lead- 
ership. For this is a world-wide movement of the whole 
Church and by the whole Church, and for the whole Church, 
thougli the work will be largely done in and by Conferences. 
The Church has its untiring and indefatigable leader in the 
person of the Corresponding Secretary of the Board of Con- 
ference Claimants, the Eev. Joseph B. Hingeley, D.D. Most 
Annual Conferences have agents in the field, and all must 
have. Upon these, to a large extent, will depend the success 
of the movement. If these agents are competent, intensive 
and industrious, then the movement will be widely effective, 
and the centur3'-old pledge of the Church for a comfortable 
support, so long unredeemed through lack of sufficient assets, 
will become effective in both spirit and letter. 

To be practical rather than theoretical I would say that 
these Annual Conference agents should be men with large 
visions of Christ and the Church, with a profound sense of 
their responsibility to God, and their duty to their retired 
brethren. They must be men who not only see visions, but 
who dream dreams and make their dreams come true; men 
who keep step with the advanced public sentiment as to the 
reasonableness of all old age pensions, especially to those 
which are inherent in the gospel ministry. They mast be 
men of faith, and loyal-hearted, and experienced with faith 
in God, faith in the Church and its loyalty to its aged min- 
isters, faith in the importance of the movement; men ca- 
pable of inspiring like faith in others and of persuading them 
to capitalize their faith in permanent investments in behalf 
of the A'eteran Ministers, and the widows and orphans of 
deceased ministers. They must be optimists who see that 



<« 



ANNUAL CONFEEENCE EEPKESENTATIVES 377 

the times are ripe for a great church-wide movement; men 
who believe there never was a time in the history of the 
world when God had so strong a grip on the Church and the 
Church had so strong a grip on God as now; men who see 
that thoughtful Christian men were never so ready to throw 
their gold and silver into God^s treasury for strengthening and 
extending his kingdom and dealing fairly and squarely with 
God's workmen. They must be men who believe that the gold 
and silver and "the cattle upon a thousand hills" belong to 
God, and that they are not too great a price to pay for build- 
ing the kingdom or keeping the kingdom's pledge to its build- 
ers. They must know men, and be able to show them "Whose 
they are and Whom they serve/' and that God expects them 
to use their resources for the proper comfortable support of 
those who in their strength went forth amid tears and sacri- 
fices sowing the seeds of righteousness and laying the founda- 
tions, upon which they have builded. They should be men 
of such large personality as to be able to stand before 
any organization, or in any presence as the representatives 
of God and the Church, and without apology or pitiful pleas 
of poverty show that these sacred claims are based on scrip- 
tural authority as well as upon the most practical principles 
of church economy. These leaders must be men of persistent, 
untiring effort, ready to go anywhere or to make any sacrifice 
for the glory of the Church or the comfort of its Veteran 
Ministers, always ready to preach the blessedness of giving, 
to advise as to Wills and to write bequests and to solicit con- 
tributions from the people. By methods like these and a 
hearty cooperation of the ministers, the Pittsburgh Confer- 
ence ha» secured during the last two quadrenniums nearly 
$200,000 of productive investments; besides thousands of 
dollars of subscriptions not yet due, and many thousands in 
bequests not yet in force. 

To God be the praise and glory for the awakened interest 
in the Conference Claimants of Methodism ! 

W. D. Slease. 

3119 Kelvin St., Pittsburgh, Pa. 



378 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

THE MAN WITHOUT A FUTUEE 

Some one has said that "holding doggedly to what one 
believes to be strictly conscientious is acting out a farcical 
piece of unreasonable stubbornness." 

The minister is a man who entertains a call he deems 
divine. He felt the call in his own heart. He heard it as 
did Aaron, coming from the lips of the Church. He saw it 
when, after years of his best endeavor, he saw the fruits 
of his labor. He conscientiously proved it in many ways. 

He knew that the remuneration would be small. He was 
not looking for anything more than enough to cement body 
and soul. He knew the inevitable end, when he would be 
obliged to quit, and be set aside with no regular income, and 
that this would occur after he was no longer able to perform 
manual or brain work. He intended to spend and be spent 
in the labor of love. He knew he would not be permitted 
to take any time or energy from the charge he served and 
speculate as every other man can do. He gave all he had to 
assist some one else. 

He gave his life wholly to the Church, and must work as 
long as life should endure. He might have stopped after he 
had slaved twenty years or so, before the grasshopper had 
become a burden, and his natural forces had abated, and have 
worked a few years for himself and family, but to him this 
would have been downright dishonesty. Had he not promised 
the Lord to work for Him all his days? 

So this stubbornly conscientious man labors on, and on, 
and on, till the wheel breaks at the cistern. He has never 
had any home but a parsonage. He has no furniture except 
his scanty bric-a-brac, the gifts of friends through the weary 
years. He has no property but his dwindling library. He 
is retired. The Conference session ends. He has preached 
forty-one years and as a "necessitous case" receives $78 for 
the years facing him. He staggers out. He has no home, 
no future — but Heaven. He is a martyr, a saint, a hero ! 

Thank God ! that this is a wrong that is being righted. 
In 1913 there were two dollars for him, as against one dollar 
five years ago, and the 1915 CAMPAIGN means that there 
shall be three dollars instead of one — $231 instead of $78. 



THE 1915 CAMPAIGN 

THE PROGRAM 

THE REV. J. B. HINGELEY, D.D. 

Corresponding Secretary Board of Conference Claimants 



Many things have been said about the General Conference 
Board and Annual Conference organizations. We are begin- 
ning a common campaign which the Board is seeking to for- 
ward in every practicable way. At a meeting of the Ohio Con- 
ference commission, after I had presented an analysis of the 
situation, a bright Christian woman, member of two Gen- 
eral Conferences, said that she thanked God for "the modern 
baptism of accuracy/' which made it possible for the Church 
to measure its liabilities and resources. One reason why we 
can come together in such a united spirit is that we have been 
reading the same facts, and studying the situation in our 
several Conferences, and are therefore able to project the 1915 
CAMPAIGN on the lines of the most intense cooperation. In 
the Buffalo Area there is an Area organization representing 
the six Conferences, which have formed an alliance for mutual 
help, and to see each Conference through its task. The sug- 
gestion came from Dr. F. T. Keeney, and was adopted imme- 
diately by Bishop Burt. In 1908 the Board was up against 
a wall of indifference or opposition, but I do not know of a 
Conference which is not to-day helpfully related to the Board 
of Conference Claimants and solicitous for its leadership. 

Literature 

The question of literature is a live question. Our em- 
barrassment grows out of the fact that we have not money 
with which to do the necessary business. The little we had 
hoarded in the General Fund is exhausted. We cannot take a 
dollar from the Permanent Fund, or from percentages. But 
we have the work to do, and I am sufficient of an optimist to 
l)eh"eve tliat as in the childhood of the Board, so now in its 
manhood the friends of the Veterans will provide funds for 

379 



380 THE EETIEED MIXISTER 

the 1915 CAMPAIGX. We cannot wage successful battle 
along the great lines laid out by this Convention unless the 
ammunition wagon is filled for use. The Board must have 
the money. The literature for the 1915 CAMPAIGX must 
be prepared and printed^ and adapted for use in any Con- 
ference. The Veteran Preaclier must be enlarged and issued 
every month, with pages devoted to the Annual Conference 
Campaigns, with special editions for the several Conferences. 
"We are ready to do this, and have the plans, program and 
arrangements with the printer. "We wait only the arrival of 
the ^'Ammunition Wagon.*' 

We have a great intensive, extensive, cooperative campaign ; 
and on our mailing list in Chicago must have the name of 
every possible contributor in ever}- pastoral charge in Meth- 
odism. Inspirational literature, the Veteran Preacher, and 
special literature must be prepared and sent to them. Pastors 
must be given inspiration and information so as to present 
the cause to the people. Every district in Methodism must 
be organized for work, and skilled workers discovered and 
trained. 

Climax of Coxferexce Campaign 

The climax of a Campaign might be handled as follows: 
Take a charge which has sent in one hundred names of pos- 
sible contributors who have received literature from the Board 
and have been informed as to the needs. The pastor has pre- 
sented the cause in tlie pulpit; five canvassers, laymen or 
pastors, set aside for that purpose, go to that community 
trained to do a certain task. Each man is to see ten persons 
in the morning and ten in the afternoon, and urge them to 
make contributions or pledges to the fund. Each of these 
Preachers will be met and introduced by a la}Tnan. By night 
every one of those one hundred possible contributors will have 
been personally solicited and the entire work of solicitation 
for that charge completed in one day. If there are thirty 
solicitors, then six other charges can be canvassed in one day, 
and six hundred possible contributors interviewed; and in 
ten days six thousand friends of the Veterans can be seen. 

The work done will be reported to headquarters each night ; 
an account of what has been done put into type and sent out 
the next morning to each possible contributor so that all may 



MEEGING THE WORK 381 

know just what has been accomplished. This will be done 
daily, until the canvass has been completed. Several Con- 
ferences are organizing along these lines. I am sure that 
such an intensive "lightning campaign/' following thorough 
preparation, would place any Conference on the hundred per 
cent list during this quadrennium. 

Co:t^NECTIONAL WORK MeRGED 

For the sake of greater efficiency the Board of Conference 
Claimants has submerged its individual interests in the larger 
program of the intensive, cooperative Campaign. Ten million 
dollars will make all the Conferences solvent, and when that 
is accomplished, and while it is being accomplished, there 
is no doubt as to the response of the Church to the special 
and particular needs of the Board of Conference Claimants. 
God is already sending to us messages laden with money. 
The other day one aeroplaned almost 2,000 miles and landed 
on my desk. We did not go after it, and never met the giver. 
But the Spirit of God and of Christian liberality had visited 
him, and he "was not disobedient to the heavenly vision." A 
few weeks ago an old soldier wrote, "I am an old man and 
have five thousand dollars in the bank, and haven't an heir 
this side of Scotland. I want my money to go to the old 
Preachers; will you take the money for them, and pay me 
interest on it until I die?" It cost us two postage stamps 
to secure that gift. Nobody knew he had a penny, but he 
had five thousand dollars, and love for' the old Preachers. 

Publicity 

One result of this campaign will be the opening of the 
hearts of the people. We need only open their eyes and 
ears, God will open their hearts. They will be glad to get 
the suggestion of helping the old Preachers, but they will 
never get it if we remain silent. A clipping from the North- 
western Christian Advocate opened the way for us to receive 
$11,000 from an aged Christian woman. If we will only 
give the publicity God will wing our words with His love. 

The Campaign is cooperative, intensive and general. It 
is ordered by the General Conference, has the leadersliip of 
the Bishops and District Superintendents, is intended to 
meet the full claims in every Annual Conference throughout 



382 THE EETIRED MIXISTER 

the entire Clmrcli, and is aided, abetted, pushed and led by 
the Board of Conference Claimants, to whom the Chnrch 
has committed the duty not only of "uniting the stronger 
and weaker Conferences in one general plan to secure a more 
equitable and general support for the Retired Preachers, 
especially in the more needy Conferences,'' and of "building 
up and administering a Permanent Connectional Eund"; 
but also that of '^increasing the revenues for the benefit of 
Conference Claimants/' however distributed. 

This provision to "increase revenues for Conference Claim- 
ants" has no limitations placed upon it. AYlierever there is 
a Retired Preacher or the widow or dependent orphan of a 
deceased preacher there it is the duty of the Board of 
Conference Claimants to go and, so far as may be in its 
power, to see that a sufficient support is provided. 

The Permanent Fund of the Board of Conference Claim- 
ants helps "necessitous cases'' in all Conferences; and the 
funds in the hands of Annual Conference Trustees, 
Preachers' Aid Societies, etc., are distributed generally as 
annuities or pensions based on service. The more invest- 
ments Annual Conferences have, the more fully can thev meet 
their obligations to their Conference Claimants, and the 
less claim they will have on the Connectional Fund. On 
the other hand the more money that is invested by the 
Board of Conference Claimants, the more money it will have 
to assist the Annual Conferences in relieving the needs of 
"necessitous cases." 

The 1915 CAMPAIGX, to quote the language of the General 
Conference, is for "The Jubilee Gift of Five Million Dollars, 
comprised of all gifts to the funds of the several Annual Con- 
ferences and also to the Permanent Fund of the Board of 
Conference Claimants." 

By the time of the session of the next General Confer- 
ence there must he no Conference in Methodism in which the 
Retired Preacher does not receive in full the amount promised 
to him hy the Discipline. 

There are many great organizations in Methodism, and 
our Bishops and connectional officers and ministers are 
greatly interested in them all, but are determined to see the 
fulfillment of the General Conference program for Con- 
ference Claimants. 




THE 1915 CAMPAIGN 

COOPERATIVE, INTENSIVE, 
EXTENSIVE 

REV. E. C. E. DORION, D.D. 

Associate Editor Zion's Herald 
Member Board of Conference Claimants 



The year 1915 will mark an epoch in the history of Amer- 
ican Methodism. One need not be prophetic in vision in 
order to know that this will be so, for one branch of that 
family is awakening to the responsibility it owes its ministry. 
Such an awakening means a new day, the dawn of a new era 
for the Methodist Episcopal Chnrch. I speak in no uncer- 
tain terms. By the token of our advance legislation, by the 
awakened consciousness in the industrial world, by this 
gathering I see the triumph of the idea for which we stand. 
There is the scent of victory in the air. 

We are engaged in big business to-day. AYe are talking 
in dollars, but that is merely for the convenience of expres- 
sion. Back of all is a great overmastering idea — the recogni- 
tion on the part of the Church of its responsibility to the min- 
istry. Even as a new attitude in the business world toward 
the worker has resulted in more equitable laws, and a change 
of industrial conditions, so the new attitude of the Church 
toward its ministry will bring about new conditions that will 
affect the preacher throughout his entire career. 

Fulfilling a Compact 

We are not inaugurating a campaign this day for a com- 
pany of paupers; our task has not for a main purpose the 
relief of suffering. It is true that this fund will make it 
possible for us in an adequate way to take care of those in 
need, and that there will come relief from hardship and suf- 
fering for men who have given themselves to a life of holy 
service. But back of the 1915 CAMPAIGN there is some- 
thing more important even than that, because it includes this 
and much more. It will bring about a new attitude on the 

383 



384 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

part of the Church toward the men whom it has ordained. 
We would have the Methodist Episcopal Church live up to 
the obligation it took on itself when it accepted the young 
minister as he stood at the bar of the Conference and said to 
him : "Give us your lif e ; go and preach ; devote all your time 
and service to the ministry and we will take care of you." 
Let Methodism catch a glimpse of the significance of this 
compact, and who need fear for the success of the campaign ? 
We may talk in dollars and cents, but this idea is back of it 
all — the obligation of the Church to its ministry. And this is 
why the year 1915 will mark an epoch in the history of Amer- 
ican Methodism. It will result in a complete transformation 
of the entire ministerial question. It will affect the ministry 
at its source, and will cause to swell that stream of youths 
who will dedicate themselves in answer to God's call to them. 
It will affect the man who is in the strength of his power, and 
will inspire him to better work as he realizes that a loyal 
Church is back of him. It will affect the Veteran as he drops 
out of the firing line, knowing that a grateful Church holds 
him in affectionate and tangible remembrance. It will trans- 
form the entire ministry, and by the same token transform 
the Church itself. Of a truth we are erecting milestones 
along the way of American Methodism. 

A Campaign 



i<r 



The 1915 CAMPAIGN." Why a campaign? Not for 
the sake of having great gatherings or great speeches, inter- 
esting: as this mioht be. Not that we mav discourse on the 
unfortunate condition of the old preachers. That may come 
out of it, but only in an incidental way. I shall never forget 
when the condition of some of these old preachers first dawned 
on me. The son of a Methodist preacher — the third genera- 
tion, in fact, in the ministry — I was ignorant of the unfor- 
tunate conditions under which some superannuates lived. 
I learned one day that during the week an enfeebled old 
preacher cobbled shoes to support himself and his aged wife; 
and there came to me a sense of burning shame that my 
Church should thus ignore its old preachers in the day when 
they had ceased from active service. The condition of the old 
preacher will come into the discussion, and we will help to 



THE CAMPAIGN COOPERATIVE 385 

arouse the Church; but that which will most impress the 
Church will be its responsibility to the entire ministry. 

It is time we did this. The ministry as a cause has long 
enough been ignored. The minister gives himself, body, 
mind and soul, to every good cause. This has been the history 
and the glory of our Church. But his own cause ? Over and 
over again it has been set aside for "a more convenient time.^' 
That time has noiv come. Loyal to the very end to every 
cause, let the Church now be loyal to him. This will affect 
the whole ministerial situation. We often think that we have 
a sure ministerial supply in the Methodist Ej^iscopal Church, 
and that it will never exhaust itself. That is true only up 
to a certain point. If this is true in the general run of 
appointments, how about our weaker work? And how about 
our larger work? Every District Superintendent knows how 
difficult it is to secure men for the small, out-of-the way 
appointments — the hard places. If we are to have the men 
who are needed to care for all our work, then there is need 
of a new attitude toward the ministry on the part of the laity. 
I know a man who, in an hour of excitement, spoke of the 
minister as the "hired man'' of the church. Brutal this may 
have been, but I fear that all too often that for which this 
expression frankly stands is back in the consciousness of some 
of our laity. No, not "hired men" are these who stand at 
the sacred desk, but prophets of the Most High, touched by 
the power of Almighty God; men who have given their lives 
to the Church, and to whom the Church in loyalty must give 
its support throughout all their years. 

A Cooperative Campaign" 

In order to bring about this new attitude, the campaign 
must first of all be cooperative — that is to say, we must have 
the cooperation of all church agencies. Each department of 
Methodism has its own work and each must be honored in 
prosecuting it. But there comes a time when, for one reason 
or another, the right of way must be given to some particular 
agency for a special campaign. Then the sense of brotherly 
consideration and cooperation must come into play. Such 
it is with the Board of Conference Claimants at tliis time. 
The General Conference called upon this Board to raise, at 
some time during this quadrennium, tlie magnincoiit sum of 



386 THE RETIRED MINISTER 

five million dollars for the Retired Preachers. All through 
this i:>eriod one cause or another has l)een given the right of 
way. Now, we are saying that the year 1915 belongs to the 
old preacher. This is the great emergency cause for that 
year. Nothing must be allowed to take its place. 

Then again, this cooperation must be between the various 
agencies to which this cause has been committed — the General 
Conference Board of Conference Claimants and Annual Con- 
ference organizations. Some thought these agencies of neces- 
sity overlapped; but nothing of the kind exists and must 
not appear to. Cooperation between the General Conference 
Board and the coordinating agencies is the word, and all 
friends of the Veterans must strike hands together through- 
out Methodism. AVe are told of the battle-line in Europe 
that stretches over four hundred miles and more. The vari- 
ous detachments are unable to keep in touch one with an- 
other ; yet there is no isolation, for back of the battle-line are 
the master minds and back still further the master mind ; so 
that the skirmish here, and the artillery duel yonder, and the 
infantry charge become parts of one great general plan. 
There must be a like coordination of the forces of every Con- 
ference in Methodism, from Maine to California, all cooper- 
ating with the Board in carrying out the one program. 

Intensive Campaign 

It is to be an intensive campaign — that is, intensive in the 
several Conferences. We may till the field at large, but in 
order to do so successfully we must first of all till in particu- 
lar. Every furrow must be turned and every acre cultivated. 
We must work well each individual Conference. In order to 
do that, there must be the organizing of our local forces. 
Now and then we are led to think we have too much organ- 
ization. That is true if the organization be useless, but it 
is not so if the organization has a purpose. In organizing 
Annual Conferences for the 1915 CAMPAIGN we must lay 
the burden on the laity. The laity can make this program 
go ; and are ready to do it. This idea that we are trying to 
make dominant is already recognized in industrial circles. 
The laymen recognize the right of the worker to his hire, and 
are carrying this over into the realm of the Church. 






THE CAMPAIGN EXTENSIVE 387 

An Extensive Campaign 

It must be an extensive campaign. It must swing into 
line all the Church's resources and activities. It must swing 
the Bishops into line. They have much to do, and are contin- 
ually called upon for service ; but it was for this purpose they 
were elected to their high office, that they might be the great 
leaders in every great and good cause. We rejoice to-day in 
the knowledge that the Bishops have already entered enthusi- 
astically into the 1915 CAMPAIGN. There must be the 
most earnest cooperation of the District Superintendents, 
those who represent "the applied end of the Episcopacy," the 
local Bishops, by whom the Church swings to victory. They 
are the key men of our Methodism, and every one of them 
must get into line down to the last man. Then we must secure 
the individual support of the preacher — not for himself, but 
for the great cause, into which he must throw himself with 
utter abandon. The importance of the press to the success 
of the 1915 CAMPAIGN cannot be overstated. We are 
inclined to think at times that the press has lost much of its 
influence. But did you notice that no sooner had war broken 
out in Europe than every nation began appealing to the 
American press that it might secure its influence? The 
influence of the press! It can hardly be overestimated. It 
was never greater than at the present time. Our denomina- 
tional press must be in line with this campaign for the 
old preacher. I know what I say when I assert that every 
editor in the Church is interested, intensely interested, in 
this great cause. 

As we look at this task and consider the conditions, we may 
be discouraged at times, wondering if, after all, we can suc- 
ceed against so many obstacles ? The old story comes to mind, 
of the drummer boy who, ordered to beat the retreat, an- 
swered that he knew not how. "But I can beat a charge that 
will bring the dead to life.'' And victory took the place of 
despair. Let the representatives of Methodism beat a charge 
that will bring the dead to life. Then secure not five million 
dollars, nor ten million dollars for Conference Claimants, but 
millions enough to make the future of the IMetliodist min- 
istry secure. 

Methodism, rise and march to victory! 

Boston, Mass. E- C. E. Dorion. 



388 THE EETIKED Ml^^lSTER 

A FAMILY AFFAIR 

"EOUXD EOBIX'' FROM THE GEXERAL OFFICEES 

PUBLISHIxVG AGENTS 

George P. Maixs 
Publishing Agent Methodist Book Concern, Xew York 

There is no benevolence in the entire Church more worthy 
in itself, none more meriting universal and enthusiastic 
cooperation by the entire Church, than the Veteran Preachers' 
interest. My entire conviction and sympathy are with this 
cause, and I wish you the largest possible success in its pro- 
motion. 

H. C. Jexxixgs 
General Agent Methodist Book Concern 

The Kingdom which the Methodist preacher is helping to 
bring, so far as he is concerned, is a Kingdom built upon 
sacrifice. It is often said that preachers are not good business 
men, but it is safe to say that any man who can take suc- 
cessful charge of a church; be the general manager of not 
only all the religious services, but of the church debts and 
the building committees; and the raising of funds for all 
manner of causes, often on an insufficient living salary, and 
keep his business credit in perfect order, is a man who if he 
had given himself to it would have made a successful business 
man. Knowing the almost certain poverty of old age in the 
Christian ministry, this preacher listens to the higher call 
and becomes a preacher of the gospel, resigning his oppor- 
tunities for money-making into the hands of those who do 
not hear the same call to higher service. These other men in 
business life whose homes and whose opportunities are con- 
served by the sacrificing preacher who brings the better moral 
tone into the community are under obligations most binding 
to see that the preacher of righteousness is maintained in 
decent comfort when he is, through disability, beyond the 
power of earning. It is therefore a simple justice to see that 
his old age is cared for. The 1915 CAMPAIGN is founded 
upon justice, and ought to win, and it will win. 



PUBLISHING AGENTS AND EDITORS 389 

E. R. Graham 
Publishing Agent Methodist Book Concern, Chicago 

Why a "Retired Minister''? Because he has given freely 
of his life forces to help to establish the Kingdom here on 
earth, and he is, therefore, an agent in making the world 
better and bringing men into touch with Him who gave the 
command- — "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel 
to every creature." He did not consider himself but the cause 
he was presenting to a sinful world. He gladly responded 
to every call, day or night, sick or well; and this faithful 
work brought the world under obligations to him. By devo- 
tion to duty he overtaxed the physical or mental man so 
that he became a broken force with nothing laid by for a 
day like this. Shall we pay the debt which the world owes 
him, or shall he suffer alone and in silence? For he neither 
chides nor complains. 

J. H. Race 
Publishing Agent Methodist Book Concern, Cincinnati 

What could be finer than a denomination-wide campaign 
for our Retired Ministers — these deserving Veterans of Meth- 
odism ! We all know that each one deserves a comfortable 
support. Endowment funds should be adequate so that each 
of these heroes may depend definitely upon his annual income. 
May Militant Methodism respond to the call ! 



EDITORS 

W. Y. Kelley 
Editor Methodist Review 

To those men, who have given themselves and their all to 
the Church in lavish service through many years, the Churcii 
should say, in their years of Retirement, Freely ye have given, 
freely ye shall receive. 

George P. Eckma>^ 
Editor The Christian Advocate 

Every reason one can think of for supporting a minister 
of the gospel wliile he is in a(;tive service is also a reason i'of 








^ 











W. V. Kelley 
Levi Gilbert 
R. H. Hughes 
F. M. Larkin 



J. M. Buckley 
E. R. Zaring 
D. B. Brummitt 
H. H. Meyer 



G. P. ECKMAN 

C. B. Spencer 

D. G. Downey 
J. R. Joy 



EDITOES 391 

taking care of him when through age or infirmity he can no 
longer fulfill his public ministry. Because in his youth he 
turned away from all the means of gaining a livelihood, the 
Church undertook to provide him with sustenance. When he 
finishes his work the obligation to care for him is not re- 
linquished. On the contrary it is increased. The financial 
opportunities which other men possess have never come to 
him. The claims upon his income have always equalled and 
usually surpassed his ability to respond to them. He gave all 
for the Church, and the Church is morally bound to protect 
him from want. The campaign which Dr. Joseph B. Hingeley 
is conducting under the authority of the General Conference, 
and the simultaneous movements in the same direction by 
the several Annual Conferences of Methodism, have not begun 
too soon, nor do they aim too high. The Church will not be 
comfortable until the interests of the Conference Claimants 
have been made secure. 

H. H. Meyer 
Editor Sunday School Publications 

The campaign for the better support of our Retired Min- 
isters is worthy the attention and active cooperation of every 
one. No benevolence or missionary enterprise has a juster 
claim upon our moral and financial support than has this 
fund. It should be promptly and adequately endowed and 
thereby placed upon a sound business basis, lifting the sup- 
port of the Retired Ministers out of the realm of benevolences 
into that of recognized and deserved pensions. 



J. J. Wallace 
Editor Pittsburgh Christian Advocate 

The very best service the preacher can render with no 
thought of reward or claim for wages is involved in the 
Divine call to the Ministry. The minimum of return for 
such service which God calls the Church to render is ade- 
quate provision for the preacher's needs and comfort as long 
as God leaves him on earth. The Campaign for Retired 
Preachers is a timely and worthy attempt to make feasible the 
realization of ideals in the Methodist Episcopal Church. 



392 THE EETIEED MIXISTEE 

Levi Gilbert 
Editor Western Christian Advocate 

I believe that the Church will never be satisfied until the 
pensioning of her honored Retired Ministers is put upon a 
logical basis. The disciplinary legislation upon the subject 
seems very well thought out on reasonable lines. We need 
to push forward to the full realization of these statutes. It is 
but just that our aged and broken-down men should receive 
the full support for their old age which the legislation con- 
templates. To put them off with only a percentage of it is 
not particularly creditable to us as a great and powerful de- 
nomination. There is no lack of money to finance this proj- 
ect if only our laymen will awake to the full necessity of it, 
and I have long been of the strong opinion that no Veteran 
should be compelled to plead his poverty or need in order to 
get his full claim, nor should he think that because he has 
been a little forehanded and has endeavored to put aside some 
savings during his years, that he ought to be expected to give 
up his claim, perhaps to have his portion given over into the 
hands of some one who has more recklessly used his money. 



A. J. Xast 
Editor Der Christliche Apologete 

The Campaign of 1915 to raise a Fund of Five Million 
Dollars for the Conference Claimants of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church will find a hearty response in the breast 
of every Methodist who appreciates the great debt the Church 
owes to those noble messengers of the Cross, who, obeying 
the call of their Master, have counted all things but loss for 
the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, their Lord, 
and for the pri\ilege of spreading ahroad the honor of His 
Xame to a world redeemed by His Blood. 

The proper provision for their temporal comfort in the 
old age is but a recognition of God's ordinance that "those 
who preach the gospel should live of the gospel." "Should 
it be thought a great thing," the Apostle Paul exclaims, "if 
we, who have sown unto you spiritual things, should reap 
your carnal things?" The spiritual debt we owe to the great 
army of faithful ministers of Jesus Christ can never be fully 



EDITOES 393 

paid in gold or silver; but to withhold the gold and silver 
would be the height of niggardliness and dishonor. 



A. J. BUCHER 

Editor Haus und Herd 

Even under the Old Testament dispensation ministers were 
well provided for, who gave themselves wholly and for life 
to the service of the sanctuary. Could the Church to-day 
wish to do less? Her provision must extend over the whole 
of that period in the life of her faithful ministers, in which 
they are utterly unable to provide for themselves. If a man 
of God has given his all to the Church in his best years, the 
Church during his worst years should give him at least what 
he needs. 

E. E. Zaring 
Editor Northwestern Christian Advocate 

The cause of the Eetired Minister in the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church in reality needs no defence. We all agree that 
in taking his ministerial vows to go wherever he may be sent, 
the minister earns the gratitude of the Church to the extent 
that he should be provided for in his declining days. The 
average Methodist Episcopal Preacher's salary is small and 
the demands made upon him are many. He is generous to the 
fault. He is a soldier and is earning his pension just as sol- 
diers in the standing army of the Nation are earning their 
pensions. The Methodist Episcopal Minister went to the front 
when there were others who did not answer the call. Can wc 
afford not to provide for him? Is not his claim a just one? 



C. B. Spencer 
Editor Central Christian Advocate 

i hope the 1915 CAMPAIGN for five million will end in 
exultant triumph. The endeavor for Annual Cout'ercnco 
organizations strikes near home and to it the people will 
respond, but we need also the wider or connectional view that 
builds up a strong treasury independent of Conference lines. 
Eeally there is nothing that will prove sucli a strong con- 



394 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

iiectional tie as a great Connectional Eund administered by a 
connectional society. Success to you. Our heroes need you; 
and we too who will be coming along presently. 



E. E. Jones 
Editor Southwestern Christian Advocate 

AVhen a man enters the ministry of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church he solemnly agrees to go cheerfully wherever 
he is sent. And often in the interest of the work, ministers 
are put in strategic places where they suifer inconvenience 
and discomfiture both for themselves and their families. 
When they surrender themselves thus to the denomination 
for the good of the denomination it is only just and equitable 
that they should be provided for in their old age. For this 
reason, the work of the Board of Conference Claimants is 
carrying forward an imperial task of the Church. The Board 
is meeting an obligation that is brotherly, just, equitable and 
thoroughly in line with modern humanitarian movements. 
If he who gives himself to the country is worthy of a pen- 
sion; no less worthy is he who gives himself to the Church; 
for often in our stead he suffers privation and inconvenience, 
therefore, we should share with him some comforts of life in 
his old age. 



E. II. Hughes 
Editor Pacific Christian Advocate 

As I have gone to the Conferences year after year, the one 
thing that has astonished me above everything else as a lay- 
man, is the absolute unselfishness of a vast majority of the 
Methodist Preachers. They receive only a meager allowance; 
a very large percentage of them tithe, and then at Conference 
they give, and give until it really hurts, for the causes pre- 
sented. I have often said that a collection would be much 
more appropriate than asking them to contribute. But one 
of the prime requisites of a follower of Jesus is unselfishness. 

Then what about the day of retirement for the sacrificing 
minister ? The laymen should provide against that day. The 
campaign for $5,000,000 is one of the most vital before the 
Church to-day. May it succeed, and may God speed the 



EDITOES 395 

day when the "Old Veterans" may spend their declining years 
in the comforting assurance that the great Church they un- 
selfishly served will see that they want naught. 



Dan B. Brummjtt 
Editor The Epworth Herald 

One thing the Methodist Episcopal Church needs to do just 
now with regard to the Eetired Preacher is to make his lot as 
comfortable relatively in one part of the Church as in another. 
If we are connectional at ail we surely should be in our deal- 
ings with the men who have made us a connection. It is not 
the fault of any Eetired Preacher that he happens to be in a 
Conference whose funds are scant; and it is not fair that the 
Conference of the scant funds should be blamed more than 
other Conferences for its treatment of the Veterans. If the 
Board of Conference Claimants does nothing more than level 
up this particular form of inequality and inequity, it will 
justify the purposes of its existence. I believe it will do 
much more than that. 

F. M. Larkin 
Editor California Christian Advocate 

It would be difficult to improve on the Discipline of the 
Church in what it says in reference to the cause of the Vet- 
eran Preacher. If the Church succeeds in carrying out the 
plan suggested by the Board of Conference Claimants and the 
law of the Church as found in the Discipline very much will 
be accomplished in the redemption of the pledges of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church which have been a part of the law 
from the beginning, to provide a comfortable support for 
every Eetired Minister. Let every Conference apportion 
the full amount and give the laymen the opportunity of meet- 
ing it. This is the first and most important step in securing 
an adequate support for our Eetired Ministers. 



J. J. Manker 
Editor Methodist Advocate Journal 

The campaign inaugurated by the Board of Conference 
Claimants, with the endorsement and cooperation of tlie 



396 THE RETIRED MIXISTER 

Bishops, for securing a more adequate support for the Retired 
Ministers and the widows and orphan children of our de- 
ceased ministers, is worthy of all praise and merits the hearty 
cooperation of all ministers and laymen. 

The ministers now on the Retired list labored under greater 
difficulties and received snialler compensations for their serv- 
ices than most of those now in service, and tliey are conse- 
quently more in need of lielp in their declining years. Their 
very necessities appeal to us who are yet on the "firing line" 
and on the score of justice and generosity touch our nobler 
nature and call us to do our best in their behalf. 

We who are to-day bearing the burden and heat of the 
struggle soon will be laid aside ourselves, and then the very 
beneficence that we are now providing for others will inure 
to our benefit in our time of need. As we now do unto 
others, even so by and ))y will it be done unto us. Thus we 
shall be doubly blessed, having the consciousness of having 
done the right and worthy thing for worthy and needy 
brethren, and having the assurance that when the dark and 
cloudv day shall come to us there shall be light and cheer 
for us. 

David G. Dowxey 
Book Editor Methodist Episcopal Church 

The cause of the Veteran Preacher ! Xeed we say more ? 
There is every reason in the world why we should be proudly 
anxious and glad to help these noble men. By their 3'ears of 
devotion, by their days of old age, by their love for us and 
our love for them the appeal is made strong and irresistible. 
God speed the 1915 CAMPAIGN in behalf of these, our 
elder brothers ! 



CORRESPOXDIXG SECRETARIES 

S. Earl Taylor 
Corresponding Secretary Board of Foreign Missions 

We of the Board of Foreign Missions can well understand 
the urgency which prompts your Board to undertake a move- 
ment for the better care of the Retired Preacher, Ijecause we 



COEEESPONDING SECEETAEIES 397 

ourselves are facing new conditions which make it necessary 
for ns to make better provision for our retired missionaries, 
and to secure those larger sums which are necessary for the 
furtherance of our world-wide work. We wish you Godspeed 
in your great effort. 

W. E. Oldham 

Corresponding Secretary Board of Foreign Missions 

What concerns me much in providing suitably for our Vet- 
eran Preachers is that failure at this point cuts the tap root 
of enthusiasm for entering the Ministry. This is true, not 
so much on the part of the eager young candidates as of their 
parents and friends who seeing the distressing conditions 
under which old age and feebleness find our Veterans, may be 
pardoned for trying to keep their sons from so uninviting a 
prospect. We cannot hope for the enrollment of a steady 
stream of capable and spiritually trained men at the front 
doors of our Conferences if the back doors open upon pov- 
erty and distress. 



F. M. North 

Corresponding Secretary Board of Foreign Missions 

Your favor followed me across the Pacific, and reached 
me when I was occupied with travel and close work in our 
fields here. I feel quite sure that you need no new expres- 
sion of my interest in this matter. It has been a satisfaction 
to me that I was able in the beginning of the quadrennium 
to give your Campaign a push forward. 

A. B. Leonard 
Secretary Emeritus Board of Foreign Missions 

The campaign you are so vigorously and successfully lead- 
ing for a more generous support of Eetired Ministers, their 
widows and orphans, is worthy of the generous support of the 
entire Church. 

Its success will not only give good cheer to preachers al- 
ready retired, but will greatly hearten many now in the active 
ranks, poorly supported, who are looking forward to retire- 
ment in the oncoming years. Best wishes for highest suc- 
cess. 



398 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

Waed Platt 

Corresponding Secretary Board of Home Missions and 
Church Extension 

It is a paramount claim. He has more than earned it. He 
has invested his life for the Church and the Kingdom; and 
the Church cannot do less than provide for him when he re- 
tires from a life service out of which he was able to bring 
little or nothing for the time when he might most need it. 



C. M. BOSWELL 

Corresponding Secretary Board of Home Missions and 
Church Extension 

The 1915 CAMPAIGN for the Retired Preachers con- 
ducted by the Board of Conference Claimants merits the 
most liberal support of Ministers and laymen. The amount 
asked for the cause will not only aid in making Veteran Min- 
isters comfortable in their sunsetting years but will also 
assure the young minister, entering upon his life's work, of 
a supporting provision for his latter years if he shall fully 
dedicate his life and talents to the work of the ministry. 



F. D. BOVARD 

Corresponding Secretary Board of Home Missions and 
Church Extension 

The campaign for the support of the Retired Ministers of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church should have the hearty co- 
operation of all the departments of the Church. Adequate 
support for the Retired Preachers will greatly strengthen the 
ranks of the itineracy. Success to your most worthy cause. 



ROBEET FOEBES 

Corresponding Secretary Board of Home Missions and 
Church Extension 

The amount paid to a Conference Claimant is an equity, 
not a charity. The superannuated man gave his life to the 
service of the Church on a mere support, while others were 
making money. Robert Burns saicT that Age and AYant 
are an "ill-matched pair." Let honored age in the Methodist 



CORRESPONDING SECRETARIES 399 

Ministry be free from want. The Conference Claimants' 
Fund is the most sacred of all funds. 



P. J. Maveety 

Corresponding Secretary Freedmen's Aid Society 

I am tremendously interested in the effort which is being 
put forth to raise a fund whose income shall make comfortable 
the last years of our Retired Ministers and their wives. There 
is no cause in the whole Church which has a louder call than 
that of the men who did the pioneer work of establishing and 
building churches, and making possible the wealth and pros- 
perity of our whole Methodist membership. In my early min- 
istry I was frequently solicited by Retired Ministers, whose 
only means of support was canvassing for books, and at that 
time I sincerely hoped that the day would not be far distant 
when a man, who had given his life to the moral and spiritual 
enrichment of his fellow men, should not be in abject poverty 
himself in his old age. As the inheritors of the fruits of the 
labors of these men and women, we of the younger generation 
should at least provide against the poverty and suffering of 
the makers of our riches in their old age. We are well able to 
do this, and are going to do it. This movement must succeed. 



Thomas Nicholson 
Corresponding Secretary Board of Education 

I thoroughly believe in the effort to provide amply for the 
Retired Ministers of our Church. In this day when railroads 
and corporations are pensioning their faithful employees, 
when almost every State in the Union is making some pro- 
vision for a pension fund for its teachers, and when the 
rewards of business are constantly becoming ample enough 
to enable the employees to provide for themselves, it seems 
to me that the Church should show due liberality toward 
her Veteran Ministers. It seems to me that there are two 
movements to which Methodism should give itself with its 
whole heart : First, to raise the minimum salary for a preacher 
in every Conference so that every acceptable Minister will 
have a living wage, and then to provide a sufficient retiring 
allowance to enable that man to give himself unreservedly to 



400 THE RETIRED MINISTER 

his work without distraction through the necessity of mak- 
ing money to provide for his declining years. 



Edgak Blake 
Corresponding Secretary Board of Sunday Schools 

The Methodist Episcopal Church owes it to the Veteran 
Preacher to make his support sufficient for his needs, and to 
stop the policy of giving him the crumbs that fall from 
others' tables. His claim should be the first to be raised in 
full. If any man must lack, let it not be he. The 1915 CAM- 
PAIGN of the Board of Conference Claimants is the most 
comprehensive and statesmanlike procedure that has ever 
been attempted in behalf of Veteran Preachers in the history 
of Methodism. May it succeed beyond even the fondest hopes 
of the Corresponding Secretary and his colaborers. 



J. B. HlXGELEY 

Corresponding Secretary Board of Conference Claimants 

"'^Whatsoever things are Honest, whatsoever things are Just, 
whatsoever things are Pure, whatsoever things are Lovely, 
whatsoever things are of Good Report; if there be any Virtue 
and if there be any Praise, think on these things": and re- 
member that the Veterans of the Cross were "honest," "just," 
"pure," "lovely," "of good report," examples of "virtue" and 
worthy of "praise," and that the Church which neglects them 
cannot itself remain "honest," "just," "pure" or "lovely," nor 
can it be "of good report," for "virtue" in a world which in so 
many ways recognizes and praises the pension competency 
for old age. 

^Y. F. Sherida>^ 
General Secretary Epworth League 

The Church owes a debt to its Retired Preachers which it 
never can repay. These men are the hidden pillars upon 
which the Church of to-day stands. They have laid broad 
and deep the foundations of the Church's present prosperity. 
I trust that you will be gloriously successful in raising funds 
adequate to the needs of these Heroes of the Cross. 



COEEESPONBING SECRETARIES 401 

Clarence T. Wilson 
Corresponding Secretary Temperance Society 

I am greatly stirred and thoroughly grateful to hear of 
your proposed plan to endow the great movement for the sup- 
port of the Conference Claimants. These men have purchased 
the lots, built our churches, won our members, organized our 
colleges, paid our debts, started our beneficent enterprises, 
made our civilization, reformed our abuses and suffered for 
every good cause. Is it not time we were doing something 
worthy for them and something worthy of ourselves? 

When they volunteered for this service, we put them up 
before the Conference and made them vow to go where sent, 
to live on what was given them and to make no complaints. 
They have carried out their part of the contract; and what is 
our part but to see that when the field work is done, the pen- 
sion is adequate to support them in comfort until the end? 
There ought to be millions in your treasury to supplement the 
meager offerings of the Conferences and hold up the hands of 
these representatives of the cross. 



W. S. BOVARD 

General Secretary Methodist Brotherhood 

I congratulate the Methodist Episcopal Church upon the 
plan and progress of the campaign for a suitable sum of 
money with which to care for the Veteran Ministers. No 
cause making its appeal to the Church meets with more gen- 
eral and more hearty response than the appeal for these funds. 
The Church is seeing that it is not simply a benefit to the 
Retired Ministers, but a great stimulus to men looking toward 
the ministry or now bearing its burdens. The Church is 
also seeing that the laymen are serving themselves by pro- 
tecting the ministry against the temptation to remain in the 
active ranks after they should be upon the pension roll. Suc- 
cess is bound to crown your efforts. 



D. W. Howell 
Corresponding Secretary General Deaconess Board 
I sincerely trust that the Campaign of 1915 will be all 
that you desire. It seems to me that if the preachers give 



402 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

the strength of their manhood to the development of the 
Kingdom that the Church should amply provide for them in 
old age. The only proper and honorable care that the Church 
should offer to the Eetired Preachers is a care-free old age. 



^WHY DON'T YOU SPEAK FOR YOURSELF, JOHN?' 
By a Methodist Priscilla to John, the Preacher 

Hoarse? Yes, hoarse from shouting 
For the brown men of Japan; 
Sore-throated from long preaching 
On the lost in Palawan; 
Vocal cords all rasping 
From lambasting Holy Rome; — 
And not a breath for whispering 
For the Brownies in your home. 

Tired? Yes, tired from working 
For the mothers in Ceylon; 
For the foot-bound Chinese mothers 
Limping, hobbling in Canton 
Far away and distant, 
Under minaret and dome; — 
Tired? Too tired for thinking 
Of the Mother in your home. 

Pleading? Tears a-streaming 

Down your cheek; with sobbing voice, 

For the alien and stranger. 

That they make your heaven their choice? 

Anxious for the Hindu children 

Far away across the foam; — 

What about these orphan children 

Of your Pastor here at home? 

Out of patience with the Veteran 
Who will not lie down and die? 
With the Widow and the Orphan 
Who distract you with their cry? 
No? Forgive you? You don't mean it? 
Far away you will not roam? 
You repent? Then sure ivill care for 
Those ivho dwell within your home. 




WE'LL DO IT! 

BISHOP W. F. OLDHAM 

Corresponding Secretary Board of Foreign Missions 



"They took us for life — let them see us thru/' was the 
homely but unmistakably clear putting of the case by the 
Eev. Varnum A. Cooper, D.D., to the New England Con- 
ference. It is true. It is reasonable. It is just. 

When the young man after years of rigorous and expensive 
training stood at the door of the Annual Conference he 
approached the Church of his choice with mingled feelings 
of high hope and utter abandon. His hope was that oppor- 
tunity would be given him to preach Christ's G-ospel, which 
he felt with glow of soul to be "the Power of God unto Salva- 
tion." He was eager to be at it and asked few questions, if 
any, about his earthly compensations. He expected to marry 
and in due course to welcome the children God might send 
liim. But his was no prudent calculation of the exact means 
for the support of himself and those dear ones whom in his 
young enthusiasm and other-worldly devotion he committed 
to the care of the church, at whose altars he was converted, 
under whose fostering care he had grown, and to whose 
service he was consecrating his talents, his labors, his family, 
his life, his all. 

Because of his eager youth, his fine preparedness, his 
enthusiasm and his quality, the Church received him gladly. 
When he was presented to the Conference, and the Board of 
Examiners reported on his case, and the District Superin- 
tendent followed in a brief statement, closing with the words, 
"Bishop, tliere is nothing against him," the older men 
saw again the picture of their own youthful days, and their 
eyes were moist while they ci'ied aloud, "Amen ! Amen !" 

And so the Church took the young minister for life; 
and for thirty, forty or it might be fifty years he has given 
to it the best there was in him. Unstintedly he has poured 

403 



404 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

himself out. He has been "in labors abundant." His ser- 
mons have been on every possible subject that can engage 
human attention. He has appeared before every kind of 
Society, from the Masons bedecked in solemn pomp, and the 
Grand Army of the Eepublic, with its pathetic group of 
feeble but grand old men, to the "Sisters of the Maccabees'" 
and the children of the "Loval he^ion" — and to all of them 
he has spoken the fitting, Christly word. He has been cease- 
less in pastoral and community labors; advising the careless, 
counseling the perplexed, stimulating the indolent, urging 
the timid. He has sent scores of young people to high school 
and college, advised others in their choice of a life work; 
has married the youths, baptized the babies, visited the sick, 
watched by the dying, buried the dead — and above all has 
yearned over the waj^w^ard, has pleaded with the erring, and 
has brought many to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. 

Meanwhile financial matters have pressed upon him. A 
family has come; the children have had to be schooled and 
suitably kept; there have been books to buy, and endless 
social duties to meet. He has contributed to every collec- 
tion and has often been the mainstay of "the benevolences." 
His home has been headquarters for church guests, and he 
has never turned away from the poor. He is often blamed 
for lack of thrift; but the money he spends on others is the 
only money he has really "laid up." 

Meanwhile the boys and girls whose education has always 
kept the preacher-couple at the borders of want are scat- 
tered and gone. They are now in those efforts in getting 
started in life which are the common experience of the chil- 
dren of the parsonage. 

And now it comes towards evening. His hair is frosted, 
and his pastoral feet do not trip readily from door to door. 
His sermons, too, though packed with the weighty advices 
of a lifetime, are not as merrily full of cheer as those of 
his less knowing youth. It has been hard for several years 
to place him. The fact is that the preacher has grown 
old, and must give place to younger men. 

Where is he to turn for shelter and food as evening gathers 
about him? "Will the Church, that took him in his youth, 
and to whom he has given unstintedly the strength of his 
manhood years, with material compensations far below the 



WE'LL DO IT 405 

level achieved by others of his parts and training in other 
vocations of life, now reassure him as he conies towards the 
end of his active days? Was not that the implied covenant 
through all the strenuous and poorly paid years? Was not 
he to give the best he had and was not the Church in its turn 
to see that his outpoured life was to be sacredly guarded 
from the most dreaded of stalking ghosts — an old age of 
feebleness and penury? And besides, there's the old preach- 
er's wife, and what he might bear for himself, how shall he 
bear for her? 

Is it not a refinement of cruelty as well as a breach of 
implied trust for the Church in the end to fail this man? 
It is true he has not been a close financier. He has not 
painfully counted or pinched the pennies he drew from his 
pocket; he has been too busy trying to persuade others to 
follow him in the support of every good cause. And, truth 
to tell, the margin between respectable living demanded of 
him and the last dollar of salary was never noticeably wide. 

And so, to return to the question, what will the Church 
say to this anxious man as he now for the first time inquires, 
and justly, as to what provision is being made for his remain- 
ing days? He is now, in the telling phrase of the older day, 
"A Worn Out Minister." Will not the Church, in whose 
service he wore himself out, fulfill its part of the contract ? 

Surely our laymen — men of the market, the shop, the 
court-house, the office and the farm — need only look at this 
question in its broader aspects to determine at once what 
a square deal calls for. 

"They took us for life — let them see us through.'' 

The retired minister must he provided with a modest com- 
petency. Shame must not be brought upon the Church, nor 
heart-break to the old preacher and his loved companion 
by failure at this point. And it can so easily be done. 
Let pastors give the people the actual facts without apolof/i/. 
Then let us all pull together to raise the ten million dolhir 
endoivment. It needs to be done only once for all. 

Kindness, Thoughtfulness, Gratitude, Justice, Fair Play, 
all say, ''Do it." What shall be the answer of the indivichial 
pastor — what the reply of the individual layman? ]\Iay 
there not be a quick, glad response from all: Well do it! 

William F. Oldifam. 



406 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

THE HEEO FUND 

"Some day a millionaire may establish a ^hero fund' for 
country ministers who spend their lives in the service of the 
community, not only ministering weekly to their congrega- 
tions, but marrying the young people, visiting the sick, bury- 
ing the dead and responding to every call. Not the least part 
of their heroism consists in their willingness to serve for the 
pitiful salaries paid in some small towns, salaries smaller 
than the wages of a carpenter or a blacksmith and less than a 
day laborer gets in cities." — Youth's Companion. 

C. H. McRea 

Youth's fire had faded from his face, 

And Time had wrinkles sent him; 
The crown of age, the hoary head, 

The other world has lent him. 
His step is slow, his eye is dim; 
There is no hero fund for him. 

When first he heard the trumpet call 

To preach the glad evangel, 
His heart, responsive, said, "I will," 

As might a strong archangel. ^ 

He preached that mighty word with vim — 
But there's no hero fund for him. 

By day and night, through flood and fire. 

O'er dying sinners yearning; 
He pulled the sinking from the tide, 

The brands from out the burning; 
Desire is dying now, and dim ^ 

The hope of hero fund for him. * 

The meanness of the narrow souls, 

Who starved him in the service. 
Is fearful now — when health is gone — 

That wealth might make him nervous. 
The claimant's dole is spare and slim. 
There is no hero fund for him. 

But O, the chariots of God 

Are ready to move straightway 
To bear the conquering hero home 

Whene'er he sights the gateway! 
'Tis sunset o'er the world's red rim, 
The hero fund is full for him. 



PART III. THE CLAIM SUPREME 

CHAPTER III. AGENCIES 

PAGE 

The Publishing Agents 408 

1. The Book Concern Mains 409 

Story of the Saddlebags. Adams . . . .412 

2. The Chartered Fund Hitchcock 413 

3. Annual Conference Endowments Greenfield 415 

Annual Conference Agents 420 

4. Contributions from Pastoral Charges.. Clemans 421 

Annual Conference Agents 424 

5. Board of Conference Claimants Hamilton 425 

6. Veterans of the Cross Fellowship Cooper 429 




HENRY C. JENNINGS 



GEORGE P. MAINS 




JOHN H. RACE 



EDWIN R. GRAHAM 




CLAIMANTS' GREAT ASSET 

THE BOOK CONCERN 

THE REV. GEORGE P. MAINS, D.D.,LL.D 

Publishing Agent Methodist Episcopal Church 



I would like to emphasize two facts about the Book Con- 
cern, and also make a suggestion which 1 hope may be re- 
ceived with large hospitality. 

First. While I cheerfully recognize the large service which 
the Book Concern has been able to render to the Retired 
Ministers, I nevertheless think that there is some danger 
that this specific mission may be unduly emphasized at the 
expense of what is fundamentally and really its great mis- 
sion, namely, that of furnishing the Church with the best 
literature at the most reasonable cost to the consumer. I 
yield to no person in my interest in the welfare of the Retired 
Preacher, and believe that he should not only receive the 
largest recognition of sympathy and approval from the 
Church, but that it is a supreme duty of the Church to see 
that his old age is ministered to in comfort by a support that 
shall be adequate to his needs. In the thought of many 
observers it is an anomalous thing that the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church should subsidize its literature in the interest of 
making dividends to the Annual Conferences in behalf of the 
Veteran and Retired Preachers. I do not myself quarrel with 
the proposition that from its surplus earnings the Book Con- 
cern shall make generous bestowments in their interests. I 
simply have a feeling that at present we are unduly empha- 
sizing the function of the Book Concern in this particular 
relation. There are some people who seem to be in danger 
of losing sight, pretty much altogether, of the real mission 
for which the Book Concern was established. I know person- 
ally men of prominence who are continually urging upon us 
the necessity of earning large amounts of money in order that 
we may make generous dividends to tlie worn-out preachers, 
yet, if I were entirely frank, I would be bound to say that 

409 



^10 THE EETIEED MIXISTER 

from the lips of several of these men I have never heard one 
single suggestion with reference to the supreme importance 
that the Book Concern shall consider it to be its primary 
mission to furnish to our o-reat constituencv the best Church 
literature possible at the lowest sustaining costs. 

When the Book Concern was first founded its promoters 
were all poor. The best of them received only a meager, 
living support. It was a very natural and legitimate thing 
that if any earnings were made by the publication house in 
excess of the real needs of the business, such earnings should 
be divided among the traveling preachers of that early day. 
Our present condition, however, is widely different from that 
which then prevailed. We now have a great and wealthy 
Church with a lay membership rapidly approximating four 
millions; a Church from whose prosperity the creation of a 
fund which would l)e adequate to give comfort to all our 
Eetired Ministers, if entered upon dutifully and cheerfully, 
would hardly call for an appreciable reduction of current 
resources. It is my very firm conviction that whatever the 
Book Concern may now do, or may be able to do for this 
interest in the future, the Church as a whole should respond 
to the summons of the General Conference by the establish- 
ment of a fund which shall place the Methodist Veteran 
in his old age on a basis of financial support not excelled by 
any other Church in Christendom. 

Second. The aid which the Book Concern has already 
rendered to the Conference Claimants funds represents a 
great fact, worthy of all emphasis. I understand from the 
Corresponding Secretary of the Board of Conference Claim- 
ants that an effort is now to be made to raise an endowment 
fund of five million dollars, the proceeds of which shall be 
devoted in perpetuo to supplementing the present provisions 
for the support of Eetired Preachers. I might very properly 
congratulate the secretary upon the fact that before a dollar 
of this proposed fund shall have been raised there is already 
provided a sustaining fund of nearly six million dollars, 
which has been utilized for this purpose. The Methodist 
Book Concern to-day has assets amounting to very nearly this 
sum, from the earnings of which during this very year we 
are paying over to Annual Conferences the magnificent sum 
of three hundred thousand dollars. By a law that is pretty 



THE BOOK CONCERK 411 

definitely ascertained in the experience of the financial world, 
the most conservative securities can be reckoned upon to return 
an interest revenue of only about four per cent. This seems 
to be a pretty well demonstrated fact under normal financial 
conditions ; but this year we are actually paying to the Annual 
Conferences from our earnings a cash dividend of five per 
cent on our capital of six million dollars, really a little more 
than five per cent on our actual capital. 

In the history of the Book Concern there have been long 
periods when, because of obligations incurred in other direc- 
tions, no dividends from earnings have been paid to the An- 
nual Conferences. I need not here enter into a statement 
as to the reasons for the large diversions which during some 
considerable periods have been made from the earnings of 
the Book Concern to causes other than to benefactions for 
the worn-out preachers. I call your attention, however, to 
what has been done in recent years in this connection. Pre- 
vious to the year 1883 there were paid altogether as dividends 
to the Annual Conferences, $344,066. Since 1883, including 
the current year 1914, we have paid $3,254,000, thus making 
a total of dividends from the earnings of the Book Concern 
of $3,598,066. Undoubtedly the total dividends of the pres- 
ent quadrennium will exceed a million dollars. I challenge 
you with the statement that this magnificent result is without 
parallel in the history of any other denomination in Christen- 
dom. It is something for which the Church as a whole may 
cherish a sense of profound gratitude. With continued 
loyalty to its increasing publishing interests, I see no reason 
why the Book Concern should not prove a source of unceas- 
ing and increasing benefactions to our Eetired Ministers. 

Third. I would like to make a suggestion that the Board 
of Conference Claimants should enter into arrangements with 
the Book Concern as to life annuities, in which work we 
have an advantage over any other existing organizations. 
I can see no reason why the income from such a fund should 
not be placed for administration with the Board of Confer- 
ence Claimants ; but I am very clearly of the conviction that a 
great annuity fund could be secured by compliance with the 
suggestion. I congratulate the Church upon the prospects 
of enlarging success in this honorable enterprise. 

150 Fifth Ave., New York. George P. Mains. 



412 



THE EETIEED MIXISTEE 



STORY OF THE SADDLEBAGS 
The Rev. C. M. Adams 

"The saddlebags were tied on behind the saddle when full, 
otherwise thrown over the seat of saddle. They were often 
used as a pillow at night in the open, with a camp fire at the 
feet, at which coffee had been boiled and bacon fried. 

"The outfit consisted of horse, saddle, saddlebags, quirt, 
lariat and frying-pan, food, Bible and hymn book. Preach- 
ing places were school houses or the Court House. School 
houses were of logs with openings, but without windows and 




doors, with dirt floors, fire places and slabs for benches. The 
parsonage had been sold for fifty dollars as I had no bird for 
the nest. It was loaded on to a lumber wagon, without being 
torn down, and drawn ten miles to a mining camp. My 
salary was $150 a year. Board was $3 per week, or $156 a 
year. The hospitality of the people knew no bounds/' 




METHODISM'S OLDEST 
INSTITUTION 

THE CHARTERED 
FUND 

THE REV. ELWIN HITCHCOCK, D.D. 

Secretary Preachers' Aid Society 
New Hainpshire Conference 



There is no fellowship that surpasses that of Methodist 
preachers. It is not merely poetry or sentiment that we sing 
at Annual Conference : 

"We share our mutual woes. 
Our mutual burdens bear. 
And often for each other flows 
The sympathizing tear." 

It is ^Vhat we have felt and known.'^ This was true a hun- 
dred and fifty years ago and it is true to-day. The spirit 
of other denominations toward Methodism at that time was 
not what it is to-day. Methodists were looked at askance as 
those that were turning the theological world "upside down." 
Because of this and other conditions many of the preachers 
were frequently sent to fields that tried soul and body, to 
meet opposition and not infrequently persecution. Their 
salaries were uncertain and meager, so that a distressed trav- 
eling preacher was not an unknown quantity, and the super- 
annuate or worn-out preacher was not cared for as he had a 
right to expect; for he had given his life to the Church 
and was not the Church under moral obligations to care for 
him in his old age? 

At an early dale it became apparent, not only to the preach- 
ers but also to the Church, that relief must be found for these 
men in their old age ; and with this in view the General Con- 
ference of 1796 established the Chartered Fund, and the Pre- 
siding Elders and pastors were appointed agents to solicit and 
receive subscriptions for the same, the money to be invested 
by Trustees chosen by the General Conference. It was 
ordered that the income be divided into as many equal parts 
as there were Annual Conferences in the United States, and 

413 



4U THE EETIEED MINISTER 

applied for the benefit of the distressed effective preachers 
and Retired ^linisters and their families. 

The Chartered Fund has not been a failure, although it has 
not accomplished all that was hoped for. If it has not 
brought permanent relief for those for whom it was estab- 
lished, it has brought temporary help and joy into many a 
preacher's home. The annual dividend from the Chartered 
Fund at present amounts to thirty dollars for each Annual 
Conference. 

Because the Chartered Fund was not equal to the emer- 
gencies, Preachers' Aid Societies, Relief Associations, and 
kindred organizations were started, which have frequently 
failed to do all that was expected, because the Presiding Elders 
and preachers, who were depended upon to solicit the funds 
already had multiplying cares which taxed their time and 
bodies. Such organizations lacked the essential requisite for 
efficiency, namely, an executive head charged with the duty 
of making the movement go. 

The Methodist Church has at last struck the trail that will 
lead us to the goal of a sufficient support for all Conference 
Claimants. With our Campaign cry of five million dollars 
for permanent funds, and with Bishops, District Superin- 
tendents, Preachers, Corresponding Secretary and Conference 
representatives all joining in the shout and giving this cause 
the right of way for 1915, the time is near when Veteran 
Preachers and their wives will be assured a comfortable sup- 
port, which neither they nor the Church will consider to be 
a charity, but an honorable claim to be honorably met. 

Elwix Hitchcock. 

Bradford, Mass. 




ANNUAL CONFER- 
ENCE ENDOWMENTS 

THE REV. S. J. GREENFIELD, D.D. 

Field Secretary of Preachers' Permanent Fund 
Commission, Northern New York Conference 



The denomination to which we belong possesses the unique 
distinction of being the only branch of Protestantism, with 
the exception of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 
which has had local endowment funds of any considerable size 
for the benefit of Eetired Ministers, widows and orphans. 

Endowment funds are generally denominational rather 
than local ; as for instance, those in the Presbyterian, Baptist, 
Congregational and Protestant Episcopal Churches; also 
those of Methodism in Canada, England and Australia. In 
these bodies endowment funds are secured and managed by 
general boards instead of by local organizations. Many of 
our Annual Conference organizations have existed for years, 
but it was not until 1908 that the General Board of Confer- 
ence Claimants was organized. Up to that time the general 
endowment funds for the benefit of Conference Claimants 
were held by the Trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
and by the Chartered Fund. Had the Board of Conference 
Claimants been brought into existence decades ago a general 
fund might have been established sufficient by this time to 
provide an adequate support for all Conference Claimants. 

These two methods, that of a general board and that of 
local boards, are widely different and suggest the question as 
to which is the better plan; and much might be said in 
favor of each. A central fund held in trust and administered 
by a general board would be in agreement with our polity, for 
our other denominational interests are in the hands of general 
boards and have been for many years. A general board would 
secure centralization of work and responsibility; it wouUl 
insure a more equitable distribution of the funds to those who 
are to be benefited by them ; it would tend to I'omovc restive- 
ness on the part of the ministry, and conduce to a greater con- 

415 



416 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

tentment among the members of the smaller and weaker 
Annual Conferences; it might also be less expensive to ad- 
minister one general fund "^han one hundred or more local 
funds; and it is possible, also, that as funds would be invested 
on a larger scale, they could be invested to greater advan- 
tage. These considerations, I think, may all be urged in sup- 
port of one endowment fund for the whole Church. But 
there are other considerations which may be urged in favor 
of local endowments. There is, for instance, the fact that a 
local fund appeals more strongly to the people within a given 
Conference. Such a fund is for the direct benefit of min- 
isters and widows with whose names and work and faces the 
people of the Annual Conference are familiar. There are 
also the ties of pastoral relationships which bind the member- 
ship to their own ministers, and the appeal in behalf of the 
Retired Ministers and those dependent upon them is an appeal 
in behalf of people who are known; and, of course, such an 
appeal is likely to be more effective than a more general one. 

Then a local fund makes a stronger appeal to the min- 
isters since it is their own fund raised and administered for 
and by themselves. The average minister, as well as the 
average church member, will be likely to take more pride 
in and give more liberally to such a fund than to one which 
is to be administered by a general board ; and as the chief con- 
sideration is the securing of the funds this fact is very im- 
portant. At the present time, too, such Conference funds are 
administered economically; for except the special representa- 
tive the officers do not receive compensation for their labor. 

That Annual Conference Endowment Funds for the benefit 
of Conference Claimants appeal strongly to our people is 
evidenced from the number and the size of them now in exist- 
ence. Eighty-two Annual Conferences have endo^^Tiient 
funds, the largest of which is about $350,000 and the smallest 
is about $500. Altogether the funds now owned and managed 
by the Annual Conferences amount to about $4,000,000; an 
amount which is far from being adequate to meet the just 
dues of ?,000 Conference Claimants, half of whom are Retired 
Ministers. Reducing the claims of the widows (one half of 
their husbands' claims) and those of the dependent orphans 
(one fifth of their fathers' claims) to the basis of the full 
annuity claim of a Retired Minister, we find that the total 



CONFEREXCE EXDOAYMENTS 41-^ 

problem is the same as if there were 5,000 Veteran Preachers 
for whom the Disciplinary rate of one seventieth of the aver- 
age salary of the effective ministers of the Conference for each 
year of service was to be provided. 'The total $^,000,000 
divided by 5,000 would give only an endowment of $800 
for each, the annual interest on which would amount to only 
$40. The total legal claims are $1,600,000 annually which 
represents five jjer cent on $32,000,000. The annual divi- 
dends of The Book Concern, the Board of Conference Claim- 
ants and the Chartered Fund amount to $330,000, equal to 
five per cent on $6,600,000. The direct contributions from 
the pastoral charges exceed $550,000, or five per cent on 
$11,000,000, so that when Methodism shall have added $10,- 
400,000, to its present invested funds all claims will be met. 

Many Annual Conferences have undertaken to raise large 
amounts for their endowments, those amounts in the fall 
Conferences alone reaching beyond five millions of dollars; 
but the ultimate goal is far beyond the total of the figures 
already set, and that distant goal must be reached, before 
the Retired Minister or Avidow can be certain of a comfort- 
able support in retirement. 

The Northern New York Conference has 100 Conference 
Claimants. To give them an average of $400 a year we need 
$40,000. Erom the connectional dividends, annual collec- 
tions, and our present endowments, they get $13,000 leaving 
a deficit of $27,000 to be provided out of future endowments. 
So that we need to increase our present endowment to at 
least $500,000. 

Various methods are used in securing funds for Annual 
Conference Endowments; cash gifts, pledges payable in 
annual installments, the issuance of life annuity bonds, the 
establishment of memorial funds, bequests of money or 
devises of real estate, apportionments made to the pastoral 
charges, assessments on the ministers, etc. Many Confer- 
ences have committees, commissions or incorporated organi- 
zations, some composed of ministers alone and others of 
ministers and laymen. The latter is preferable because it 
secures the active support of strong church members, which 
is an asset of great value in such work, and places also at the 
service of the commission the business foresight and experience 
and judgment of successful business men, and gives con- 



I 



418 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

fidence to the people in the undertaking itself and also 
in the proper care and investment of the funds after they 
have been secured. Many Annual Conferences have set apart 
a member of the Conference who devotes all his time to this 
work and becomes the official representative of his Conference, 
presenting the cause in the churches and in personal solicita- 
tion; devising means for carrying on the work, keeping up 
the correspondence, looking after the collection of pledges and 
cultivating the interest of the people generally; acting as an 
official of the Conference by the appointment of the presiding 
bishop. That the labor of such a representative is necessary 
is shown by the fact that only those Conferences which have 
such a representative in the field succeed to any marked de- 
gree. During the three years immediately preceding the 
appointment of a field representative in the Northern New 
York Conference, two hundred charges and as many pastors 
gave to the endo\\Tnent fund an average of $103 per year. 
But during the next three years the same churches and pastors 
paid to the endowment fund over $30,000, an average of 
$10,000 a year, with fully as much more provided for in 
pledges and bequests. But the cash result of such labor is 
not all. In addressing a congregation in behalf of the cause, 
and in showing its merits he can speak out more candidly and 
frankly than the pastors feel at liberty to do. Incidentally 
also, his appeals make clear the need of a more adequate 
support for the ministers in the effective ranks and lead the 
people to appreciate the value of the pastorate. 

The basis of distribution for the incomes from the endow- 
ment funds is not the same in each Conference. The differ- 
ences are numerous, and indicate a great variety of opinions 
as to which is the more equitable. There are, however, two 
methods, which are more or less general. One method pro- 
vides for distribution on a basis of necessity ; the other method 
is based on years of service. Some Conferences have two funds, 
distributed separately. 

The Methodist Church in Canada has two such funds. 
With us, however, the Annual Conference can distribute 
money to meet necessities, if it so desires. The charity 
element in the necessitous distribution is highly objection- 
able to self-respecting ministers. For a person accustomed 
to associate, as a minister and wife, with people who never 



CONFERENCE ENDOWMENTS 419 

depend upoii charity for their support, this difficulty is pro- 
hibitive. The sympathies of onr people should be aroused 
but not at the expense of their sense of equity and gratitude. 

The distribution based on years of service is free from the 
element of "charity^^ and makes no infringement on self- 
respect. Under this method Retired Ministers or widows do 
not have to disclose their financial condition or to prove their 
poverty. Pension systems of other institutions do not make 
poverty a condition of receiving benefit. The government 
does not pension a veteran soldier or a civil servant because of 
his penury. The Carnegie Fund does not pension professors 
on proof of poverty. The Pennsylvania or any other great 
railroad or corporation does not pension employees because 
they are living under the shadow of the poorhouse; and it is 
not going too far to say that ministers should not be compelled 
to prove poverty to a grateful Church. True, much money is 
contributed by the churches for benevolent purposes, but the 
support of the ministry must never be viewed in the light of 
a benevolence. One has said, ^^The laborer is worthy of his 
hire"; and another has written, "The Lord hath ordained 
that they that preach the gospel should live of the gospel"; 
and later, with a touch of irony, wrote, "If we have sown unto 
you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your 
carnal things f" The support of the ministry can no more be 
regarded as a benevolence than can the support of the physi- 
cian, who receives fees, or the mechanic who is paid wages. 
To regard it as a benevolence is to weaken the Church before 
the world, to turn the effective minister into a mendicant and 
the Retired Minister into a pauper. 

In Canadian Methodism the support of the Retired Min- 
istry is based wholly upon years of service; though a small 
fund is reserved to meet special needs. At its recent General 
Conference the pension rate was raised from ten to twelve 
dollars for each year of service, the amount to be paid in semi- 
annual installments. An appeal on this basis is an appeal to 
our people^s sense of equity, justice and gratitude, rather than 
to their sympathy; and they will respond through gratitude 
for the holy services of men and women, the character of 
whose work entitles them to a life-time of support in return 
for a life-time of service, 

Utica, N. Y, ,^- J- Greenfield. 









4 









ANNUAL CONFERENCE REPRESENTATIVES 
J. C. North Robert Stephens S. A. Morse 

J. B, Green S. J. Greenfield J. A. Sargent 

C. A. Kelley Stedman Applegatb J. W. Robinson 

G. W. Kepler C. M. Shepherd U. G. Humphrey 




CLAIMANTS' GREATEST ASSET 

CONTRIBUTIONS 
FROM CHURCHES- 
APPORTIONMENTS 

THE REV. E. C. CLEMANS, D.D. 
Field Representative Board of Conference Claimants 



One of the early problems that confronted American Meth- 
odism was the care of "worn-out'^ preachers and those depend- 
ent upon them. The people were poor, collections were small 
and smaller still were the salaries of the preachers. The 
Book Concern was organized; also the Chartered Fund, the 
first permanent investment fund for Conference Claimants. 
But the main source of revenue was the "Fifth Collection.'^ 
At the first quarterly meeting a collection was taken for the 
preacher, the Presiding Elder and the Bishops ; at the second 
quarterly meeting a second collection was taken; at the third 
quarterly meeting a third collection; and at the fourth quar- 
terly meeting a fourth collection. After these four collections 
had secured about all the money in sight, a fifth collection 
was taken for the "worn-out preachers and widows.^' 

The number of claimants being large and the funds small, 
the Conference stewards were compelled to reduce each claim- 
ant to a necessitous basis, the motion generally being, "I 
move that Brother Brown be granted a superannuated relation 
and be referred to the stewards for favorable consideration"; 
and all superannuates were so referred. The stewards were 
compelled to scrutinize carefully the material condition of 
each claimant, for if one claimant had more means than 
another, he would need and receive less. To be reduced to 
such a basis was so humiliating, that preachers in the active 
ranks dreaded the day of superannuation and prayed to be 
taken away before they were called to humiliating penury. 

Just when the Conferences commenced to make an appor- 
tionment to the pastoral charges for the support of super- 
annuated preachers is uncertain, but it was at about tlie time 

421 



422 THE RETIRED MINISTER 

when the benevolent causes were apportioned to the Church. 
The Annual Conference made the apportionment for super- 
annuates ; the Presiding Elders apportioned it to the pastoral 
charges and the pastors were supposed to raise the amount 
apportioned. There was no sense of responsibility, no pro- 
rating, no pressure brought to bear on the stewards, and the 
pastors took the collection as they minded. If superannuation 
was near, they felt the necessity of raising the full apportion- 
ment. If other causes were pressing, the claim of the super- 
annuate suffered. So that during all these years hardly sixty 
per cent of the amount apportioned was raised; the greatest 
amount, about $300,000, being raised in 1908. 

The General Conference of 1908 made a great advance 
in the legislation in regard to the support of Conference 
Claimants. At that time the support of Conference Claim- 
ants became one of the four items of ministerial support, and 
the pastoral charges were required to pro rate the claims of 
the Pastor, District Superintendent, Bishop and Conference 
Claimants. Previously the cause of the claimants had been 
considered a benevolence and the people were appealed to to 
give money to it out of charity; but the new legislation, by 
making their claim a part of ministerial support, took it out 
of the benevolences and placed it on the salary basis, so that 
now the charges must raise this money in the salary budget. 

Then the law of prorating was established. In accordance 
with this law the Pastor, the District Superintendent or the 
Bishop cannot be paid in full, unless the Conference Claim- 
ants are paid in full; all ministers are to receive the same 
proportion of the total amount paid as their several claims 
bear to the total budget for ministerial support. The law of 
prorating means simply that neither of the four shall receive 
more than his proportionate share of the total support. 

The basis for the apportionment is usually the cash salary 
paid to the pastors, the percentage in many Conferences being 
seven per cent. It is the duty of the Conference stewards to 
recommend the apportionment (If 326 of the Discipline), 
which, however, must be approved by the Conference before 
it becomes effective. The stewards by referring to the Con- 
ference Minutes determine what is the average salary of the 
preachers in the effective ranks. This average salary is 
divided by two, because every Retired Preacher after thirty- 



CHURCH CONTEIBUTIONS 423 

five years of service in the "effective relation" is entitled to an 
amount equal to one half of the average salary of the effective 
members of the Conference. This half salary divided by 
thirty-five gives the legal annuity rate for one years service. 
The stewards then find the total number of the annuity years 
of all the Eetired Preachers, widows and dependent orphans, 
which, multiplied by the legal annuity rate, gives the amount 
required for annuities. To this must be added what will be 
necessary for "necessitous cases," that is, those claimants 
whose condition is such as to require more than their annuity. 

The sum of the amount required for annuities, or pensions, 
and for necessitous cases makes the total claims for the Con- 
ference Claimants, or the total liability of the Annual Con- 
ference. In order to determine what amount should be pro- 
vided by the pastoral charges, the total income derived from 
other sources — connectional dividends, interest of Conference 
investments, etc. — is subtracted from the total claims, and 
the remainder, plus 5%, must be apportioned the several 
pastoral charges of the Conference, to be raised as a part 
of the budget for ministerial support. In 1913 the total 
amount raised through such apportionment was about $500,- 
000, being only one third of the toal amount needed. 

The intensive 1915 CAMPAIGN" will greatly increase 
the investment income; also there will be a steady increase 
in the dividends of The Book Concern and the Board of Con- 
ference Claimants; but in order to meet the full liability of 
the entire Church, $1,600,000, the total amount to be raised 
by apportionments to the pastoral charges should be $700,000, 
an increase of $200,000 ; and for many years to come the 
amounts received annually from the churches will continue 
to be the "greatest asset of Conference Claimants." 

And this ought to be so. There never should be a time in 
the history of Methodism when Methodists should not be rais- 
ing money for the support of claimants. We love those whom 
we help. We forget those for whom we are not concerned, 
and the Church cannot afford to forget its honored Veterans. 
Their claim should remain one of the items of ministerial 
support; and for its own good, as well as for their care, the 
Church should always have an apportionment for the support 
of its Retired Preachers and other Conference Claimants. 

Minneapolis, Minn. Ezra C. Clkman.s, 















ANNUAL CONFERENCE REPRESENTATIVES 



G. F. HoPKixs 

J. W. BiSSELL 
A. G. SCHAFER 

T. E. Green 



J. W. Prlen 
J. M. Leonard 
John Collins 
J. W. Cain 



F. M. Van Treese 
John Mayer 
W. H. Pope 
J. C. Kendrick 




METHODISM'S YOUNGEST 
INSTITUTION 

THE BOARD OF 

CONFERENCE 

CLAIMANTS 

THE REV. JAMES HAMILTON, D.D. 

Conference Claimants Comm'ssion and Board 



With this youngest institution of Methodism I have been 
related since its birth, and also closely identified with its 
strenuous career. Miss Willard declared that the best time to 
begin training a child was a hundred years before it was born. 
This child of the Church has been in prenatal training about 
that long, but more particularly since 1878, when the Eev. 
J. S. Smart, a big-hearted, robust character, led in the fight 
to have the profits of the Book Concern go to the support of 
Conference Claimants, as originally designed, instead of to 
paying Bishops' salaries. General Conference expenses 
and other items. Later Dr. J. Benson Hamilton took a 
prominent part in the training. 

At the Cleveland General Conference, 189G, the first for- 
ward step was taken to put the claim of the superannuates 
upon a self-respecting basis; that is, on years of service 
instead of penury. Three things were accomplished by the 
advanced legislation: (1) A declaration was made defining 
Conference Claimants; (2) The annual observance of Con- 
ference Claimants' Day was ordered, with the presentation 
of the claim and a collection; (3) An annuity distribution was 
provided. It is a matter of personal gratification to be al)le to 
say that this advance was copied almost verbatim from what 
was then known as the Micliigan Conference Plan, which was 
the Canadian Plan modified to meet American exigencies. 
Had the whole plan gone into the Discipline at that time, 
we would have had, substantially, the plan of to-day. 

The Chicago General Coirference, 1900, left tlie chapter on 
Conference Claimants without change, but the discussion and 
agitation of the subject went forward with increasing mo- 
mentum, so that at the Los Angeles General Conference, 
1904, the entire Church was ready for pronounced action. Dr. 

425 



42G THE KETIKED MINISTER 

Buckley voiced this sentiment in a motion made on the first 
day of the session asking for the appointment of a special 
committee to take up the question and report at an early 
date. The Committee was appointed, but before it could con- 
vene, the action was reconsidered and all papers referring to 
the subject were referred to the Committee on Temporal 
Economy. A further delay in appointing the sub-com- 
mittee to work out the plan made it impossible to report until 
very late in the session, when the delegates were getting 
anxious to return to their homes. There was also a minority 
report, and finally a Commission was appointed to study the 
question during the quadrennium and to report later. 

It was my privilege to have been a member of the Special 
Committee, and of the Commission, and also of the sub- 
committee which drafted the plan submitted at Los Angeles. 
While I have had my share of honors in the Church, I never 
felt more highly complimented than by that assignment. 
Bishop Cranston, Dr. Wilder and Mr. Eobert T. Miller were 
fine types of the episcopacy, the pastorate and the laity, 
who served on the Commission. I will never forget the devo- 
tion and faithfulness of my associates to the sacred work com- 
mitted to their hands. Soon Bishop Joyce, who would have 
been appointed Chairman, was taken away, but not until he 
had written a letter whose pathos and consecration inspired 
and enthused all hearts. Bishop Walden was appointed 
chairman, and in due time the plan was published. 

At the Baltimore General Conference, 1908, we had the 
help of Drs. J. R. Day, C. J. Little and Frank Mason North 
in putting the finisliing touches to the immortal document. 
It remained for our Corresponding Secretary, then and now 
Secretary of the General Conference, to move an amendment 
providing for the creation of the Board of Conference Claim- 
ants and the election of a Corresponding Secretary to work 
the plan. He had the idea that although an axe may be a 
good tool, yet it is not worth much without a man to swing 
it. I had a like proposition "up my sleeve" intending to pre- 
sent it when the plan had carried. There was opposition to 
the multiplication of benevolent boards, and I was afraid to 
have the idea of a board with a corresponding secretary, 
incorporated in the legislation, lest the instrument upon 
which we had spent- so much time and care should be put in 



BOAED OF CONFERENCE CLAIMANTS 427 

jeopardy. In this conviction I was sustained by the others. 
But Dr. Hingeley made it appear so reasonable and necessary 
that the entire plan went through with little opposition, and 
the child was born. 

Well was it for the child that there was some one to care for 
it; for no infant was ever left in a worse plight. No provi- 
sion had been made for clothing or sustenance. My indigna- 
tion waxes hot as I recall the situation. Think of it ! A 
great Connectional Church Board was brought into existence 
and given all the rights and privileges of the other benevolent 
boards, and not a dollar provided with which it could inaug- 
urate its work. The Hebrew slaves were called on to make 
bricks without straw. But that was not a circumstance com- 
pared with this. They at least had the mud, but our Board 
had nothing. Then too some of the older sisters did not take 
any too kindly to the youngster. Of course, they couldn't 
help liking him; but why should he demand recognition and 
his share of the family income? It was a little distressing, 
especially since there was not any too much to go around. 
But he was there to stay and to have his rights recognized. 

And now look for a moment at the miracle of finance which 
placed this institution on its feet. It was said of Alexander 
Hamilton that he "struck the rock of our national re- 
sources and abundant streams of revenue gushed forth." But 
Hamilton had the authority to strike. Not so Marvin Camp- 
bell, the treasurer ; but he struck, and the treasury was filled. 
Our big, elder brother, the Book Concern, had faith in our 
integrity and future usefulness and granted us a loan which 
put us on our feet until our Corresponding Secretary could 
state the case to the Church. 

Now hear the story of a financial achievement. Having 
absolutely no assured income, save the "Conference percent- 
ages,^' not a cent of which could be touched for expenses, the 
Board has distributed to the Conferences, or has on hand for 
such distribution, $175,000; has a Permanent Fund amount- 
ing to $250,000; has a good office equipment; has paid all 
bills when due and has spent for the common good, for liter- 
ature and publicity, $40,000. If the Board had done notliiiig 
more than supply inspirational literature, it would have 
almndantly justified its creation. At this point we toucli tlio 
greatest achievement of the Board — the successful K^ndcrsliip 



428 THE RETIRED MIXISTEB 

of the entire Church in increasing its annual distribution by 
$500,000, and in adding $3,000,000 to endowment funds. 
For me to have contributed in any way to this magnificent 
result is abundant honor. 

The whole attitude of the Church has been changed by the 
persistent championship of the Veterans' cause. "Prorat- 
ing," for instance, instead of being regarded as a matter of 
easy convenience, is now recognized as an honest elfoi't to do 
right. Had the Board from the beginning received the gen- 
erous support that it deserved and which it now receives, it 
would be able by tliis time to provide for all the necessitous 
cases; which would have produced the ideal condition: The 
Board of Conference Claimants caring for all "necessitous 
cases,'' leaving Annual Conferences free to pay the full an- 
nuity rate. With such a record, why should not the Board 
receive the praise and hearty support of the entire Church? 

No words of praise can do justice to the officers of the 
Board of Conference Claimants. "We challenge any Board 
to show a better record. Dr. Hingeley has shown himself to 
the "'manor born," and master of the most difficult situa- 
tions. The services of Judge Oliver H. Horton, chairman of 
the executive committee, a man of profound legal ability, 
have been invalual)le. Dr. J. A. Mulfinger, the careful and 
painstaking recording secretary, has kept us straight from 
start to finish. Dr. Clemans, the field representative, is a 
regular Boanerges, and stirs up enthusiasm wherever he goes. 
Our Episcopal chairman. Bishop McDowell, by his devotion 
to the cause and his enthusiasm in the work has demon- 
strated that he is in the royal apostolic succession of the 
saintly Asbury, who carried about wdth him a subscription 
book for the relief of his aged and needy brethren; and now 
that the whole Board of Bishops has pledged leadership in 
this holy cause the 1915 CAMPAIGX is already assured. 

Years ago a friend asked Dr. Arnold of the Detroit Confer- 
ence, who had been driving Dr. Tliompson's fast horse, how 
far it was to the fair grounds. "Two miles," said Dr. Arnold, 
"but with Thompson's horse you are tJiere already/^ 

With all the Bishops and District Superintendents in 
line, we are at the $5,000,000 milestone alread}^ and the 
$10,000,000 milestone is not far ahead. 

Grand Rapids, Mich. James Hamilton. 




THE VETERANS OF 

THE CROSS 

FELLOWSHIP 

THE REV. VARNUM A. COOPER, D.D. 

President and Organizer of the Fellowship 



The Veteraj^s of the Cross Fellowship is not a secret 
society with pass-words and grijos, but is a fellowship into 
which we enter and find Jesus is in the midst. The Fellow- 
ship represents almost seven thousand — seven regiments — 
Conference Claimants who are asking in what way they can 
cooperate in this Church-wide movement in their behalf? 

1. Some men are born to wealth; some men achieve wealth; 
some men have wealth thrust upon them. Here and there are 
Veterans with wealth, or a competency. I need not point 
out the way for them to cooperate. A few examples of lib- 
erality on their part would inflame the whole Church ! We 
can cooperate by practicing what we preach; by being our- 
selves generous givers to the extent of our ability. 

2. The 1915 CAMPAIGN is not a revolution but an evolu- 
tion; a change in the sentiment of the Church from the 
thought of charity to that of justice and gratitude in its deal- 
ings with Retired Ministers and other Claimants. Whatever 
softens prejudice, stimulates honor or creates sympathy will 
strengthen the claims of justice. We utter no complaints. 
Through the long years in which we have received a pitiful 
dole of charity, we might have complained, but at this stage 
of the evolution if our just claim — declared by the Indian- 
apolis Convention to be the Supreme Claim — is not fully met, 
we will continue to endure hardness as good soldiers of the 
Cross; practicing self-denial with patience and strengthen- 
ing the hand so intelligently employed in our behalf. 

3. In every way possible we will show our gratitude. It is 
beyond value that by a great Emancipation Proclamation the 
cause has been taken from beneath the iogis of Charity and 
placed in the scales of Justice ; that the Methodist Episcopal 

429 



430 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

Church has declared that our claim to a comfortable support 
inheres in the gospel ministry, and that retirement is only 
an incident and in no sense invalidates our claim. We have 
lived long in the Church and love it. Let us rejoice and 
be glad that the great record now being transcribed on the 
pages of Methodist history is a record of justice. True it 
ought to have been written long ago ; but thank God ! the 
Recording Angel has his pen in hand and the record reads, 
"Methodism has pledged itself to the pa}Tnent of the full 
claims of its Veteran Ministers, and their Supreme Claim has 
been given the supreme place." Let us manifest gratitude to 
the Board of Conference Claimants for leadership which has 
enabled us already to receive such relief as never known 
before, and to the Bishops for pledging themselves and the 
Church to the 1915 CAMPAIGN. Our vision may not be as 
clear as it once was, but we are not so blind that we cannot 
see that the day is near at hand when every claim will be paid, 
every necessity met, and from a grateful Church we will re- 
ceive a comfortable support. 

4. There is no Retired Minister who during his long 
ministry has not made and retained the confidence and 
esteem of one or more friends who are able to help in this 
supreme effort of the Church. Write a letter to those friends. 
In words that you well know how to utter, and which God can 
set on fire by His Spirit, place the cause on their hearts. 
Think of it ! three thousand or more such letters ! What 
a result would such a written appeal or a personal visit bring ! 

5. Veterans of the Cross are past masters in the art of 
prayer. We are familiar with strong crying and tears at the 
throne of grace. A\'e are practiced in wielding the sword of 
the Spirit and in the exercise of faith, the power that "moves 
the hand that moves the world." Comrades of the Cross ! 
If we could unite the prayers of thirty-five hundred seasoned 
Veterans and of as many widows of our brothers gone before, 
all used to seeing miracles of grace, crooked paths would be 
made straiaiit, and mountains of ditficultv "cast into the 
midst of the sea." If we will accompany the intensive 1915 
CAMPAIGN for funds with an intensive campaign of prayer, 
no power can prevail against us. I summon you to this co- 
operation of prayer. 

6. But after all, brethren, if every claim w^ere paid, every 



VETERANS OF THE- CROSS FELLOWSHIP 431 

necessity met, and each had a "comfortable support," money 
is not all we need. When we think of the intense activities 
of the itinerant minister's life, the multiplied functions he 
fills, and organizations for which he is responsible and for 
which he is charged every year by his Annual Conference to 
do his utmost, and then realize that by one touch of the lever, 
one show of hands his active career is stopped, what a shock 
it is ! Suddenly and with a sickening dull thud, he drops 
out of all official responsibility. From thirty to forty 
years he has been the magnetic center of a Church and 
congregation, the dynamo of all its responsibilities, and the 
leader of all its enterprises; but "in a moment, in the twin- 
kling of an eye," at what seems to him to be "the last trump," 
he is separated from it all, and for the first time in his itiner- 
ant life has his destiny in his own hands. For there is no 
Bishop to read the Retired Minister's appointment. He is 
through, not with his ministry nor his call to preach, but is 
through with his work; and must set himself down alone 
wherever his stipend will best serve him. He is retired. 

Retired means "withdra^vn from public view, separated 
from some place, position, association, function or responsi- 
bility in which he has been a factor." A Retired Methodist 
Minister has withdrawn or separated, not only from the high 
office of preacher in charge with superintendents over him 
and parishioners under him, but also from the parsonage 
home, and must house himself in an upstairs or downstairs 
tenement, a cottage on a side street, or be absorbed into the 
family of relatives, where his headship fades away. He is 
separated from the presidency of the official board, from 
stewards with whom he could confer daily, from the ladies' 
aid society to which his wife could confidently bring every 
want, from leadership of prayer meetings and class meetings, 
from all the multiplied responsibilities and functions with 
which his restless, intense life has been full. He looks for- 
ward to the Annual Conference with no feeling of oificial 
responsibility. He has no reports to present, no committee 
work to do and nothing to say. He takes an humble seat at 
the grand review, irregularly responds to the roll-call for a 
few years and then sinks out of sight ; though here and there 
among them are stars of first magnitude whom no night but 
death can dim. 



432 THE RETIRED MIXISTER 

7. These Veterans are scattered throughout the Conference 
bounds, and often far beyond it. They are of courageous 
spirit; can suffer, and make no sign; and, like their Master, 
can bear the cross or wear a crown of thorns and never cry 
out. Grace may reconcile them to scant fare and lack of the 
necessities and the conveniences to which they were accus- 
tomed. But there are wants of the soul; heart desires and 
longing for fellowship which alone can bring "the contented- 
ness of seventy years.'^ Money cannot buy it. There is need 
of that official recognition which they have always had, a 
longing for some resiDonsibility which they are expected to 
meet and of some organized useful work which will be suited 
to their strength, and, most of all, an absence of all appearance 
of just being tolerated in the work to which they are occa- 
sionally assigned. It would be better if such an organization 
of Retired Ministers should not run on a separate pulley, 
but rather be geared into the machiner}^ of the great Church, 
receiving that inspirational help which, in a connectional 
Church, can only come from being recognized, fostered and 
guided by the supreme authority. 

8. To meet in some measure these conditions, to open a door 
of usefulness for themselves, to afford the means of express- 
ing to the Church not only their gratitude but also their opin- 
ions and views, and to protect their recognized claims, believ- 
ing that the A'eteran Ministers had earned the right to be 
heard, the Veterans of the Cross Fellowship was organized on 
March 7, 1910, in old Bromfield Street Church, Boston. 
The Fellowship served one year on trial and, having proved 
itself worthy, was cordially received into full connection by 
the New England Conference in 1911. A pronouncement of 
aims and purposes was made, the work for the year was 
reported, and we were adopted into the Conference family of 
fraternal societies and given space in the Minutes. 

9. The purposes and aims of the VETERANS OF THE 
CROSS FELLOWSHIP are set forth in a brief constitution 
consisting of three articles. 

Article I reads: "This association shall be called The Vet- 
erans of the Cross Fellowship of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church.^^ Considerable time and attention was given to the 
question of a suitalile name. The Church at that time called 
us superannuated ministers. A few, through age and infirm- 



VETERANS OF THE CEOSS FELLOWSHIP 433 

ities, were such ; but the majority of us were not. The word 
itself has been given a superannuated relation, and no longer 
appears in the Discipline. Few of us had ever liked t^at 
name. The term ''Retired Minister'^ was proposed; but we 
did not fancy that term either. The old preacher had not 
retired — "gone to bed.-'^ But there was a word which suited 
us all because it included us all. We were ''Veterans/' A^'e 
had served long in the cause. That is what makes a veteran. 
We had long served the cause of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, under the banner of the cross. The General Con- 
ference had designated our day in the Church calendar, "Vet- 
erans' Day.'' So we took the name, "Veterans of the Cross." 

But what should we call ourselves; a society? That was 
meaningless. The world is as full of societies as an ancient 
garret of cobwebs; and many of them just as flimsy. Asso- 
ciations ? That was not much better. There are all kinds of 
associations. We desired a word expressive of the true in- 
wardness of our longings and aims. The days of our activ- 
ities had passed, but not the days of our loving fellowship, 
thank God. These fellowships had become stronger and 
sweeter and dearer. In the ritual for receiving members into 
the Church there is one of the most expressive and beautiful 
words to be found in the Word of God : "That vou may have 
FELLOWSHIP with us," and truly, "OUR FELLOWSHIP 
is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ." "If ye 
walk in the light as He is in the light, WE HAVE FELLOW- 
SHIP ONE WITH ANOTHER." So "VETERANS OF 
THE CROSS FELLOWSHIP" was adopted for the Church. 

Article II states the object of the Fellowship: (1) To 
create a solidarity and special fellowship; and (2) to render 
comfort and help to the sick, infirm or otherwise disabled 
Retired Ministers, and the widows and the orphan children 
of deceased ministers; to express our relations to the universal 
Church, the duties we owe to it, and our obligations to render 
to it loyalty and gratitude. 

Article III defines the membership : Any Veteran ^letli- 
odist Minister who shall sign the constitution. The member- 
ship was limited to ministers because one object was the culti- 
vation of closer fellowship among the members of the 
Conference, and because of the desire to rendei" service 
and to extend courtesies to oui* faitlifiil co-biborers. 



434 THE RETIRED MINISTER 

10. The By-Laws indicate the character of the work of the 
Fellowship : Annual and special meetings ; correspondence 
with those who cannot meet with us; extending fraternal 
greetings to the widows of the Conference, and to other claim- 
ants living within the Conference bounds ; visiting or writing 
to sick or disabled ministers; and in case of death to attend 
the funeral and, when permitted, perform a brief ritual serv- 
ice expressive of the peculiar fellowship the veteran "brave 
feel in circumstances they cannot control." 

Annual and special meetings may be made both profitable 
and delightfully interesting. Numbers cannot be large. An 
interested pastor invites the Fellowship and the ladies' aid 
society provides the dinner. We enter into some retired 
room, and the door is shut to all but the Veterans and their 
Master. A brief devotional service kindles the altar fires 
until they glow. At the banquet some special invited guest 
helps to make the dinner a "feast of reason and a flow of 
soul." Dinner over, we resume the Altar Fire service, taking 
our guest in with us, or a trip is taken to some place of inter- 
est ; and we go home happy. 

The 1915 CAMPAIGN, cooperative, intensive, extensive, 
for ten million dollars is on, and with it the placing of the 
Veteran Ministers before the Church and the world in their 
exalted and true character ; no longer as "worn-out" or super- 
annuated or even retired, but as Veterans of the Cross of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. The Board of Conference 
Claimants has adopted the VETERANS OF THE CROSS 
FELLOWSHIP and in every way has put the Veteran of 
the Cross to the front as the living remnant of the conquer- 
ing host which brought the Church to its present greatness 
of numbers and achievement. We need no longer orate about 
destitution and sufferings, but only to tell the truth about 
their character, their dauntless courage and their heroic 
deeds, emblazoned on every page of Methodist history. 

Hyde Park, Mass. V. A. Cooper. 



Note. The Rev. Varnum A. Cooper, D.D., writer of this 
article, has been appointed by the Board of Conference Claim- 
ants as general Organizer of the Veterans of the Cross Fellow- 
ship. For information or literature address, Dr. V. A. Cooper, 
1 Kensington Park, Roxbury, Mass. — J. B. II. 



PART III. THE CLAIM SUPREME 

CHAPTER IV. HISTORICAL 

PAGE 

1. Aged Pastors Must be Provided For. . . Eckman 436 

2. Veterans' Rank and Rights Restored . . Keeney 437 

3. Early Methodist Stewardship Calkins 445 

4. Cooper and Dickins Kraniz 451 

5. John Street Church Johnston 455 

6. St. George's Church Hughes 461 

An Aged Government Pensioner 466 

7. Deferred Payments WaLson 467 

8. Disciplinary Provisions for Support 

of Conference Claimants in the 

Methodist Episcopal Church 470 

Steel Pensioners in 1914 475 



436 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

AGED PASTOES MUST BE PROVIDED FOR 

Shall tlie old minister he shot? 

This question was asked and answered by the Rev. Dr. 
George P. Eckman at the Rock River Conference. 

The present age, Dr. Eckman said, demands young men 
to fill the pulpits. If churches want that sort of a thing let 
them pay the price. Let them support the Retired Ministers 
comfortably so that they can have only young men. 

As far as the old man is concerned, the office of an execu- 
tioner would be welcomed kindly enough, but he has a wife 
and a family to support. He cannot be treated as they treat 
the old in India, where they are thrown upon the funeral 
pyre, or in Africa, where they are thrown into the trenches. 

The age is exacting on the minister in the work he is put 
to do. It is exhausting. This is expensive business and 
the Church must pay for it. An engine constantly driven 
over the road soon wears out. After becoming unfit for the 
long routes it becomes a switch engine, and then is consigned 
to the scrap heap. After hammering ministers out on the 
road of life, shall we consign them to the scrap heap? 

One of the reasons why so many young men hesitate to 
enter the ministry is because of this precarious support in old 
age. Ministers would like to have money, but they cannot 
take time to earn it, nor can they save it, if they give them- 
selves to their work as they ought to do. 

The support of Retired Ministers is not a charity, it is 
a debt. What is paid in old age is a part of what was with- 
held in the early years of a minister's life. The minister is 
a j^referrcd creditor. He is not a mendicant. 

The pulpit is the freest place in our day so far as inde- 
pendence of character or of utterance is concerned. It is 
more free than the newspaper or business. The preaching 
of the gospel is the salvation of this country from anarchy. 

Whenever I hear a Socialist speaking I feel like saying, 
"Stop, thief !" for his doctrines are largely those of Christ. 
AYithout the safeguards of religion the wealthy men of the 
country could not have made their money or kept it. 

Carnegie might well endow the ministry as he has libraries. 
Rockefeller would do well if he considered this cause. 




THE VETERAN'S 

RANK AND RIGHTS 

RESTORED 



THE REV. FREDERICK T. KEENEY, D.D. 



The Methodist Itinerancy began as a fraternity of hearts. 
Common hardfehips, perils and sacrifices bound the circuit 
riders of the wilderness together as brothers in the Methodist 
household of faith. There was no high, no low; no rich, no 
jDoor ; no grade or rank in all their borders. All were one, 
and all were brethren in Christ Jesus. At the close of the 
New York Conference in 1791 Bishop Asbury declared: 
*^There were about thirty preachers present and the most per- 
fect harmony. Not a frown, not a sign of a sour temper 
or an unkind w^ord was seen or heard among us." 

The law of the Church governing the support of the early 
ministry was that each should share alike. From the Christ- 
mas Conference of 1781: to 1800, the uniform allowance was 
$64 per year for bishops, presiding elders, pastors, superan- 
nuated ministers and the widows of ministers. In 1800 this 
annual allowance w^as increased to $80, and it remained at 
that figure until 1816, when the Church became rich enough 
and sufficiently generous to grant an annual support of $100 
to the itinerant, an additional allowance of $100 for his wife, 
and an allowance of $16 for the support of each child under 
seven years of age, and $24 for each child from seven to 
fourteen years. Through all these years the principle main- 
tained that every man in the ranks, from bishop to superan- 
nuate, as well as the widows of deceased ministers, should 
share equally. When Bishop Asbury was charged with using 
his position to increase his own income^ he demanded an 
investigation, saying that he had received but $64 and travel- 
ing expenses, "the same as any other preacher." 

In 1808 a Brother Frye, of the Genesee Conference, received 
$16.18^ above his allowance of $80, and the record tells of his 
sending the surplus to Conference to lielp out the deficit 

437 



438 



THE RETIRED MINISTER 



of his less fortunate brethren. The Bishops during these years 
experienced the same hardships as the humblest minister. 
When Bishop Iledding, who was a giant in stature and intel- 
lect, moved his family into a certain Connecticut town, where 
they might find a home during his absence among the Confer- 
ences, the Town Fathers were at once called together and 
the family was officially ^'warned out." The law of Con- 
necticut at that time was that if any family came to town 
without a visible means of support the couiicihncn might 
order them to leave the place. This order did not necessitate 
their removal. But if, after having been "warned out," they 
should become dependent on the community for the neces- 
sities of life, the town was free from any obligation for their 
support. The Town Fathers therefore thought it expedient, 
in view of Bishop Iledding's limited income, to protect them- 
selves against the possibility of being chargeable with the 
care of his family during his absence. 

The average length of service in the effective relation of the 
heroes of these early days was only seven years. With some, 
their fervent zeal, accompanied wdth numerous hardships and 
frequent exposure, caused life's candle to be burned out at 
both ends and to be soon extinguished; while others were 
starved out of the itinerancy, that they might provide food for 
their families. In reply to the question, "When are men justi- 
fied in superannuating?" Mr. AVesley answered: "If they are 
not strong enough to preach four or five times a week, let them 
superannuate." Some of these heroes never came to super- 
annuation as is evidenced by the request sent to the Bishop 
presiding in the Genesee Conference in 1811: "Send us a 
pastor this year who can swim. The preacher you sent us 
last year got drowned trying to cross the river." 

There were heroes in those days. Occasionally a Peter 
Cartwright would live to give the Church sixty-five years in 
the effective relation, fifty of them as presiding elder; and 
preach four hundred sermons a year. Charles Giles, the first 
Methodist itinerant to preach in Syracuse, Seth Mattison 
and Isaac Puffer, each went down with a half century of royal 
service to their credit. But a host of others were mustered 
out through failure either of health or purse, before their sun 
had reached the meridian. One cannot forget Ebenezer 
White, of whom it w^as beautifully said that "he never carried 



VETERAN'S RANK AND RIGHTS 439 

sand instead of salt, nor flowers instead of fruit"; or Ben- 
jamin Bidlock, a soldier of the Revolution, who was known 
as the "warrior'' preacher, and who fought the devil as val- 
iantly as he fought King George; or Valentine Cook, who 
gave to Methodism that piece of furniture more highly prized 
than any other, the "^Mourners Bench." Heroes all, with 
hearts and zeal too large to be measured, who spelled brother- 
hood and service in the same terms as did Christ. 

In 1848 the General Conference authorized the quarterly 
conference committee on each charge, to estimate the cost 
of the pastor's table expenses and fuel; which should be a 
claim on the church in addition to the annual allowance fixed 
by the Discipline for pastoral support. After sixty-four years 
of history this was the beginning of a new basis of support; 
which should make it possible for one minister, through 
the generosity of his church, to receive more than another. 
Not, however, until 1860 was there a complete break with the 
past in this respect, when for the first time the General Con- 
ference authorized a quarterly conference committee on each 
charge to estimate a "comfortable support" for the pastor. 
This provision stands to-day without material modification. 

During the past sixty-six years the support of bishops, pre- 
siding elders and pastors has materially increased through- 
out the entire Church, According to the Methodist Year 
Book, the Bishops now receive twenty-five times as much as 
they did in 1848. The District Superintendents receive an 
average of ten times as much as did the presiding elders sixty- 
six years ago, and pastors four and one-half times as mucli. 
The progress which these figures show in ability and gen- 
erosity is cause for gratification. But the retired itinerant, 
who in other days bared his breast to the foe, now marches 
at the rear of this procession of advance. In 1908 one tliii-d 
of the Conference Claimants received not one penny mmv 
than did the Claimant in 1848. Less than two thirds of the 
entire number received twice as much, and only one tonlli 
received three times as much. And this meager amount was 
doled out to them not as to honored brothers of equal rank, 
but as to paupers, on the basis of necessity. 

The last five years liave witnessed the dawning of a new 
day for the Veterans of the Cross in the aiiny of our :Meth- 
odist itinerancy, where their rank and rights are being both 



440 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

recognized and restored. No longer is the veteran's claim 
based on necessity, but on the years of service rendered. No 
longer is the offering for his support counted as a "Ijenevo- 
lence," but as a part of "ministerial support," in which his 
claim is as valid as that of a pastor, district superintendent 
or bishop. At last the veteran stands beside the men now in 
the effective ranks as their honored brother, and receives Avith 
them the support which a generous Church provides for all. 

The last General Conference made provision, fixing the 
annuity rate, so that each minister's claim, who has been in 
the effective relation for thirty-five years, shall be one half 
of the average cash salary received by the members of his Con- 
ference. For a number of years many Conferences had been 
working toward the goal set by the New York East Confer- 
ence, namely : To pay each minister on retirement ten dollars 
for each year of effective service. Investigation, however, dis- 
closed the fact that a more equitable basis should be estab- 
lished for the entire Church. For, in some Conferences, if a 
minister who had preached fifty years should receive on retir- 
ing ten dollars for each year of effective service, he would 
receive much more than the active pastors were receiving. 
There are eleven Conferences in American Methodism where 
the averaire salarv is $300 or less; and twentv-two Con- 
ferences, where the average salary does not exceed $400. The 
average salary received by members of the Central New York 
Conference is $1,050 ; which amount fixes the Disciplinary 
claim of a Retired Minister who has preached thirty-five 
years, at $525, or $15 for each year of active service. 

The Avhole Church, with great heartiness and unanimity, 
has said that this new basis is right. The laymen have 
spoken with their gifts as well as with their lips. In five 
years there has been a gain in moneys contributed for annual 
distribution of nearly one hundred per cent. Five years ago 
the entire Church had only $000,000 to distribute among the 
six thousand Conference Claimants of Methodism. This year 
she has almost $1,100,000 for distribution. The present 
basis, which makes the Claimant a pensioner rather than a 
pauper, is in harmony with the spirit of the times. Corpora- 
tions, municipalities and Boards of Education are coming to 
recognize the principle that has long obtained in the army, 
the navy and the courts^ that every faithful toiler has a claiiu 



VETERAN'S RANK AND RIGHTS 441 

upon those Avhom he has served through many years, heyond 
that of his salary or wage during the term of his active service. 

The growth of interest and funds in the Central New 
York Conference is of surpassing interest. In 1869 the Per- 
manent Fund was $9,000, but so little interest attached to it 
that it required twenty-four years to add the next thousand 
dollars; and eleven years more to add the next six thousand 
dollars to the principal. This amount was doubled during 
the next five years, and during the last five years has increased 
six-fold. 

The following figures indicate this increase. 

1869 $9,000 1911 $116,295 

1893 10,361 1912 132,906 

1904 16,923 1913 150,879 

1910 35,151 1914 ,... 200,000 

The further program is, 1915, $300,000; 1916, $500,000. 

These results would not have been possible but for the mag- 
nificent gift of $50,000, made in 1911 by a son of the parson- 
age, Mr. George H. Maxwell, whose honored father, Joseph 
Maxwell, spent his life serving small charges. The challenge 
of Mr. Maxwell's generosity quickened the heart-beat of the 
entire Conference, and the momentum acquired in matching 
his gift in a single year with more than $50,000 in cash and 
subscriptions has carried us on to the still larger results, and 
made possible the adoption last year of the slogan "I'hree 
Hundred Thousand Dollars for the Permanent Fund by 
October 1, 1915." The Conference has not yet reached the 
goal, but both ministers and laymen have said unanimously 
that the present year shall record the Jubilee of achievement. 
Five years ago twenty-eight Conferences surpassed us in in- 
vested funds. To-day only six Conferences have a larger Per- 
manent Fund; and to-morrow we shall be still nearer the head 
of the column. Each District is to be intrusted with raising 
$25,000, have charge of its own campaign, and determine 
both the time and methods of its prosecution. 

The Conference campaign is greatly stimulated by the gen- 
eral movement projected by the last General Conl'erence to 
raise $5,000,000 for Conference Claimants throughout the 
entire Church during the quadrennium. The Bishops ari; 



442 THE RETlPvED MINISTER 

heartily and unanimously supporting this movement; which 
each, in his own Episcopal Area, is to direct. Bishop Burt was 
the first to call representatives of the Conferences in the Buf- 
falo Area to confer together cojicerning the establishment of a 
Permanent Fimd in each Conference ; with the result that the 
Conferences of this Episcopal Area have each set a goal for 
themselves. The formal inauguration of the 1915 CAM- 
PAIGN in Washington, at which time the Bishops delivered 
their "ADDEESS AND APPEAL TO THE CHUECH," has 
added enthusiasm to the Campaign in all the Conferences. 
The Bishops and District Superintendents have said that for 
1915 the A^terans' Cause shall have right of way, and shall be 
the one financial appeal on which suj^reme emphasis shall be 
placed. Tlie general movement will make available both lit- 
erature and speakers for Conference campaigns; and by an 
interchange of ideas, methods and workers each Confer- 
ence will receive help from the others in an intensive move- 
ment which will reach every pastor and charge through the 
mails, group meetings and team work; in all of wliicli the 
pastors and District Superintendents will be assisted by a com- 
mittee of carefully chosen laymen from each district. 

AVhile tiie Pei-manent Fund is being secured, and until the 
full $300,000 shall have become productive, the Annual Con- 
ference unanimously voted to apportion to the several pastoral 
charges for the regular Conference Claimants^ collection the 
amount necessary to meet the full annuily claims. If the 
income from $300,000 was immediately available we could 
at once pay the full annuity rate of $15 for each year of 
effective service, without increasing the apportionment. But 
it may be some time before we can recei\e full returns from 
the Permanent Fund. Our annual apportionment for Confer- 
ence Claimants was therefore increased from $10,000 to $10,- 
000; which, added to the Book Concern dividend, the dividend 
from the Board of Conference Claimants, interest on invest- 
ments, etc., will make it possible to pay all claims in full be- 
ginning with October, 1915, and to give to the Eetired Min- 
isters their rightful support. This will be quite a large ad- 
vance, but it is within reason and ability. The amount is 
no more than the Conference, in 18(58, apportioned and en- 
forced the apportionment by resolving that: ^^Any preacher 
failing to report the full amount apportioned to his charge, 



VETERAN'S EANK Al^D RIGHTS 443 

shall be called upon to give satisfactory reasons for such 
failure." 

Claimants have not properly shared in the general advance 
the Church has made since 1868. In 1869 the Central New 
York Conference contributed 58 cents per capita for Missions. 
In 1913 this had increased to $1.29 per member, a gain of 122 
per cent; none too much for churches as favorably situated 
as are ours. But during the same period the apportionment 
for Conference Claimants decreased from 35 cents per mem- 
ber to less than 22 cents. It is the plain duty of the Confer- 
ence to ask for the full amount needed, as the Discipline 
directs. By so doing the responsibility is transferred to the 
laymen; many of whom in meeting the smaller apportion- 
ment have supposed that they were paying the full claim, not 
knowing that the apportionment to the churches was less than 
two thirds of what was really needed. If the pastors fail to 
acquaint the laymen with the facts, can they escape respon- 
sibility in the consequent result? Can the men in the effec- 
tive ranks, who last year received more than 99 per cent 
of their claims, do less than ask, with loving, persistent em- 
phasis, that the Veterans, who now receive but 55 per cent of 
their due, shall receive at least as large a proportion of their 
claim as do the effective members? It is not necessary to 
raise the question of pro-rating. The law is clear, and our 
pastors and laymen are not lawless. Of every dollar received 
for ministerial support the average division would be ap- 
proximately, 85 cents for the pastor, 2 cents for the Episcopal 
Fund, 6 cents for the District Superintendents, and 7 cents 
for Conference Claimants. When the disciplinary provisions 
are followed questions involved in pro-rating take care of 
themselves. 

The laymen are making more generous estimates for the 
support of their pastors than forty years ago, and are gen- 
erally paying the claim in full. In 1870 the churches of this 
Conference defaulted payment of six per cent of the pastors' 
salaries. Last year the deficit was less than one-half of one 
per cent; a decrease of deficit of 87 per cent. If the pastors 
were to contribute the amount thus added to their income 
through the quickened (conscience of the Church the full 
ariiniity claim for the Retired Ministers would be met. 

AHhougli in the practical woi'king out of tbis plan it may 



444 THE EETIEED MIXISTER 

be difficult for the first year to meet the increased apportion- 
ment, still the pastor who is called upon to sacrifice in effort 
or purse may find comfort not only in the thought that he is 
helping the Veterans to their just claim, too long withheld, 
but also in the knowledge that the provisions made to meet 
the full annuity claim are equivalent to adding $300 a year to 
the invested capital of every pastor; the income from whicli 
at five per cent will be paid him and his family without pos- 
sible loss or shrinkage from the time of his retirement until his 
death. The annuity claim for a jMinister who has preached 
forty years is better than an investment of $12,000 to one's 
ci'cdit. Altliough the establishment of proper standards may 
mean heroic efi'ort, it is certainly worth while, in view of the 
far-reacliing and ])eneficent results. In most cases the pastor 
who finds it hardest to meet the full apportionment while in 
the active work, will be the one who will find the fund thus 
establislied of greatest benefit at the time of his retirement. 

The payment of the full annuity claim cannot fail to 
hearten every pastor who is struggling to make ends meet on 
an all too meager salary. Men will go to the weak charges 
with better heart for the hard tasks, and will be more content 
to remain in the fields where the remuneration is small, but 
the importance of the work is large, in the knowledge it gives 
that Methodism appreciates their heroism and will care for 
them to the end. Every pastor, in whatever field, will sleep 
better by night and will work with lighter heart by day in the 
consciousness that the Church, to whom he is giving his life, 
has made adequate provision for his family and himself as an 
honorable return for his labor; and that, whatever financial 
reverses may come to him, his spirit will not be crushed on 
retiring by being compelled to receive the dole of a pauper, 
which only prolongs the agony of starvation. 

Dr. B. I. Ives, the invincible hero of a thousand battles, 
used to say: ''Whatever ought to be done can he done/' To- 
day as the Church faces the opportunity and obligation of 
providing adequately for the honored Veterans of Methodism, 
I make bold to declare, not only that we ought to reach the 
goal in 1915, and that we can reach it; but, that with hearty 
cooperation and God's blessing, we will reach it. 

Syracuse, X. Y. Frederick T. Keeney. 




STEWARDSHIP IN 
EARLY METHODISM 

THE REV. HARVEY REEVES CALKINS 

Stewardship Secretary 



By permission of the Eev. Harvey Eeeves Calkins, D.D., 
author of the recent illuminating book A Man and His 
Money, we reproduce in part the chapter on "Early Steward- 
ship in America." There is a temptation to include much 
more, but the book itself is accessible. The early idea con- 
cerning the support of the ministry is still reflected in the 
legislation of the Church, but has yielded gradually to the 
spirit of the age and to contact with other denominations, 
whose pastors have a salary which can be enforced at court, 
until at present the duty of supporting the entire ministry 
is recognized by the laity; and Bishops, District Superin- 
tendents, Pastors and Retired Preachers are provided from 
a common budget. The principle is now fully recognized 
that the duty of the ministers to minister to the people 
involves the duty of the people to support the ministers. 
—J. B. H. 

Until the death of its first Bishop, the Methodist Episcopal 
Church is responsible for this strange anomaly — a Pentecostal 
movement of unprecedented power and, with it, a meager, 
parsimonious, and wholly unworthy program of stewardship. 

Nor did this come from mere chance or neglect, for Metli- 
odist leaders were never negligent. It was the unhappy and 
unexpected result of a deliberate policy, whose main purpose 
was to produce a race of heroic preachers. And the logical 
result followed. With amazing swiftness a continental 
Church was created, notably strong and elastic in administra- 
tion; but the multitudes that made up its membership, the 
very bone and sinew of American Christianity, never realized 
the vastness of the responsibility of stewardship that in- 
evitably must be laid upon them. . . . The exalted dispensa- 

445 



446 THE EETIEED MIXISTER 

tion of the gospel, which was committed to the Methodists, de- 
manded an equally exalted program of stewardship, and 
herein their failure in those momentous days of the begin- 
ning proved nothing less than a calamity. The purpose of 
the fathers, unto this hour, has been in part defeated, because, 
in their mighty program of advance, they failed to develop 
a sufficient base to carry to completion their vast designs. No 
one wdll misconstrue us. . . . But this we say : Had American 
Methodists recognized in the beginning their responsible stew- 
ardship of property, as was their right, this day would behold, 
in vaster measure than we can estimate, the triumph of Chris- 
tianity and the glory of the Son of God. The Methodist people 
themselves were not culpable for the neglect of Christian stew- 
ardship in those days of the beginnings. The fathers made 
mistakes. The heroic Asbury recognized but one command- 
ing necessity: the creation of an itinerant ministry, ready to 
march at command for the conquering of a continent. And 
Asbury realized his ideal. What a mighty race of preachers 
rallied to the banner of early Methodism ! Brave, indomi- 
table, Godly, they threaded every forest, they forded every 
river, they subdued every wilderness. The record of their 
deathless devotion is in the heart of the nation. 

But the creation of a race of preachers is not the whole of 
apostolic counsel. Bishop Asbury was tireless in leading 
forth a band of burden-bearing ministers, but, judging from 
preserved records. Bishop Asbury seemed little concerned in 
raising up a body of burden-bearing laymen, and herein he 
seems to have erred grievously. As we contemplate those days 
of the foundations, when hundreds of congregations were 
being knit together in close organic connection, and, at the 
same time, were loosely left both to find and to fix their own 
standards of stewardship, it is difficult to explain this mis- 
judgment of the responsible leadership of the Church. It 
came to pass again and again that brave ministers, those, in- 
deed, who could least be spared from the active work, were 
forced by dire poverty to abandon the active ministry. 

Even so gentle a spirit as Xathan Bangs, who understood 
whereof he spoke, wrote in 1839 : "The defect of Bishop 
Asbury's administration, as I think, was not encouraging the 
people sufficiently in making provision for their ministers, 
particularly for men of families. He seemed to fear that. 



EARLY METHODIST STEWAEDSHIP 447 

if they were too well off as respects this world's goods, they 
would lose their zeal and spirituality, and thus cease to be 
useful; and it was very congenial to the covetous disposi- 
tion, so natural to men, to withhold when they were not com- 
pelled to pay. 

"Bishop Asbury considered the itinerant ministry, under 
God, as the grand instrument of the world's salvation; to 
support this therefore, in all its vigor and spirituality, he bent 
all his energies. Hence, to prevent a catastrophe which must 
come upon the Church by the substitution of a 'located' for 
a 'traveling' ministry, he thought it essential to keep it aloof 
from the world, by preventing it from accumulating worldly 
property. Yet it may be questioned whether more have not 
been induced to locate from a feeling or fear of poverty than 
hj the enjoyment of a competency. Had a competent pro- 
vision been made for the support of itinerant ministers, and 
for the suitable education of their children, I have no doubt 
we should have been far stronger every way — in wisdom, in 
numbers, in ministerial talent and usefulness, if not also in 
holiness and general prosperity." These weighty words were 
written while the heroic days of the fathers were fresh in the 
memory of a host of living men. . , . 

Keen historic insight cannot forget those hundreds of 
located preachers, the flower of the army, forced out of the 
ranks in those very days when American Methodism was 
laying down the lines for its future development. As early 
as the year 1799, when there were two hundred and sixty-nine 
"traveling" preachers in the actual work, Jesse Lee is au- 
thority for the astounding statement that there were eight 
Imndred and fifty "located" preachers, many of them the 
most commanding leaders of the Church. That is to say, men 
who had completed their probation, tested men, were com- 
pelled to step aside for young and untried men. 

It is an astonishment and a grief to recall some of the 
noble men, who ate out their hearts in lonely separation from 
their brethren, when to preach the gospel was their very 
breath of life. There was Valentine Cook, the one great 
product of the ill-fated Cokesbury College, a leader of pro- 
found spiritual insight as well as of genuine culture. ... In 
1800 he turned heavily from the ministry to feed a dependent 
family, and as a school teacher earned his living. 



448 THE EETIRED MIXISTER 

There was Eussell Bigelow, whom Bishop Thomson de- 
scribed as '^a perfect gentleman/' who preached with such 
majesty of thought and such beauty of diction that his 
audiences "were well nigh paralyzed beneath the avalanche 
of thought that descended upon them/' Of him a chief jus- 
tice remarked, "It is one of the greatest regrets of my life 
that I did not know him better; we were a wild people when 
he was among us and we never duly appreciated him." And 
yet Russell Bigelow, the Bishop Simpson of the first Meth- 
odists, and absolutely needed by the Church in those crude 
frontier days, turned broken-hearted from the ministry, 
wliich he loved with such passion, to provide bread for his 
wife and children. He died in extreme poverty, neglected 
and alone. 

There were Caleb Bover and I^-natius Pieman, of whom 
Bishop Whatcoat said he had not heard their equal, except 
. . . Wesley and Fletcher. There was Edward Dromgoole, 
whose i^ractical v\'isdom prevented the disi'uption of the early 
societies and made possible the organization of Episcopal 
^Methodism. There was Ira Ellis, of whom Asbury himself 
said he had "abilities not inferior to a Jefferson or a Madison.'^ 
There were James Cromwell, Jonathan Forrest, Lemuel 
Green, John Hagerty. Yet these ordained ministers of God, 
all of them, and scores and hundreds of others besides, were 
compelled to withdraw from the active ministry of the 
Church whose altars they had builded. 

This unconscioiialjle sacrifice of leaders, when leadership 
was above the price of rubies, is almost incredible. Why was 
it necessary? In the large majority of cases because stern 
duty compelled it; because Methodist ministers had to turn 
from the ministry in order to provide food for their dependent 
families. Because, forsooth, Francis Asbury inflexibly de- 
manded that Methodist preachers should provide for their 
expenses on a stipend of $64 a year ! In 1800 an increase 
of $16 a year was permitted, but, until the death of the 
immovable Bishop, to whom the itinerancy was more worth 
than the itinerant, Methodist preachers received lodgings 
among the people and $80 a year "and no more," for their 
salary. 

Of course a family could not be maintained on this pit- 
tance, nor was a family in the program of the itinerancy. 



EAELY METHODIST STEWARDSHIP 449 

When godly men had announced their purpose of marriage 
the good Bishop petulantly exclaimed, "The devil and the 
women are getting after my preachers V* not seeming to per- 
ceive that God had a larger purpose, even for "The Itiner- 
ancy/^ when faithful ministers made covenant bonds with holy 
women. A remnant were indeed able to maintain their minis- 
try unto the end, and some great names survive out of that 
first eventful and crucial generation. But who were they? — 
Richard Whatcoat, Jesse Lee, William McKendree, Beverly 
Waugh — men who, like Asbury himself, were able to remain 
bachelors and live the camp life of a soldier, and who were, 
therefore, able to continue in the Methodist ministry. Free- 
born Garrettson married a lady of wealth, as well as piety, 
so he too was able to hold his place of leadership. These and 
a few other names are held in abiding honor, for their works 
do follow them. But of the many brave men who died, un- 
famed and forgotten, their life tragedy is recorded in the early 
Conference Minutes. One word reveals it all : "Located.^' 

Let it not be supposed that the Methodist people were loath 
to support their ministers, or begrudged them a competent 
allowance. They loved their pastors and never was a people 
more loyal than the people called Methodists. But they were 
trained to believe that the work of God would be impeded if 
their ministers should receive the comforts of temporal pros- 
perity; they would then be unwilling to "travel." It was in 
reality a discounting of the very manhood and consecration of 
Methodist preachers themselves. Bishop Asbury thought he 
knew human nature, and the rule respecting a minister's 
salary remained in force. That the Methodist people them- 
selves were ready to respond with liberal contributions is 
apparent, for they built and equipped Cokesbury College. 
When it was burned and the second Cokesbury College 
was consumed. Dr. Coke exclaimed, "0 that all this money 
had been laid out for a married ministry !" But it was not to 
be. The married preachers were "located,'^ and striplings 
took their places. 

Stewardship started on a high level and might have been 
conspicuous from the beginning, for the preachers and 
the people were ready. But the vision of Coke was not shared 
by Bishop Asbury. Alas ! two generations were to pass before 
that neglected vision would come again. 



450 THE RETIRED MINISTER 

It can never be well when the responsible leaders of the 
Church undertake to set at naught, for any reason, the divine 
word, ^^Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that 
treadeth out the corn." From the time the holy tithe of the 
Jewish people was set apart for the support of the tribe of 
Levi it was ordained, "They that minister about holy things 
live of the things of the temple/' Even so, "They which 
preach the gospel should live of the gospel." If Asbury 
neglected to follow this ancient command, other apostles be- 
fore him had fallen into the same mistake. The church at 
Corinth failed to provide a support for the apostle Paul when 
he lal)ored among them ; and I^aul gloried that he worked with 
his own hands, lest he should become burdensome unto them. 
This seems like great magnanimity and worthy of high praise. 
Nevertheless, when Paul beheld that same church "strait- 
ened in their own affections," when they might have been 
"enlarged," he remembered that he himself had omitted to 
train them in personal lessons of stewardship; and he wrote, 
"Forgive me this wrong." Could the spirit of Asbury travel 
again those pioneer circuits of a vanished generation, would 
he not utter the lament of the great and sorrowing apostle ? 

It is congenial to our ingrained hero-worship to magnify 
the men who hazarded their lives for the gospel ; it is not con- 
genial to lay upon them the blame for an unready Church. 
Yet what shall we say? In March, 1816, Bishop Asbury died. 
In May the General Conference met in Baltimore. One of 
the most significant acts of the General Conference of 1816 
was the recasting of the Church law for the support of the 
ministry. The salary of "traveling" preachers was increased 
to a fair competency, and a worthy plan inaugurated for 
reaching Methodist people with a larger program of steward- 
shi]D. But the reform had come too late. Thirty-two years 
had passed since the organization of the Church, and an 
entire geiieration were entrenched in the financial doctrines 
of Asbury. It was an arduous undertaking to change in- 
wrought convictions and lifelong habits. "A penny a week 
and a shilling a quarter" had provided sufficient living for 
the mighty men of the beginning ; who were these later preach- 
ers, that they should expect more? Thus ever has incompe- 
tency glorified a golden age that is past ! 

Evanston, lU. Harvey R. Calkins. 




EZEKIEL COOPER 
AND JOHN DICKINS 

THE REV. JOHN KRANTZ, D.D. 

General Salea Agent of The Methodist Book Concern 



John Dickins and Ezekiel Cooper were leaders of the Meth- 
odist publishing propaganda whose products and profits have 
done so much for the intellectual, spiritual and financial wel- 
fare of the Methodist ministry. They started that mag- 
nificent flow of dividends which annually pours into the 
treasury of the claimants' fund. 

At the Conference in 1789 the plan was proposed for the 
establishment of a book-making institution, and the Eev. 
John Dickins was appointed "Book Steward," afterward 
known as superintendent of the printing and book business. 
It was one thing to project such an enterprise by vote, and 
was quite another to launch it safely on the sea of uncertainty. 
In this crisis Mr. Dickins generously offered to loan the busi- 
ness the savings of a lifetime, six hundred dollars, an act of 
heroic faith and far-seeing vision. He was not afraid of mort- 
gaging the future, of subtracting much of himself from him- 
self in order to carry on a tremendously useful work for God. 

John Dickins, Book Steward, was required at first to take 
a pastoral charge, and was not only burdened with the cares 
of a parish, but he was editor, proof reader, business manager, 
bookkeeper, salesman and shipping clerk of the infant pub- 
lishing house. In addition, he faced serious embarrassments 
in the publishing business, since he had to depend for the 
distribution and sale of his goods on a few ministers who 
were weighted down already with numerous burdens, and 
had to travel great distances over rough ways and often 
through overflowing streams. Both the clergy and the laity 
were poor, and very little cash was at command. So he had 
to trust out most of the merchandise. He had no experience 
in printing or publishing and was without precedent or 
model to guide him. Is it any wonder that the commence- 

451 



45-2 THE RETIRED MIMSTER 

ment of the publishing interests of the Church soon became 
a matter of graye concern to Mr. Dickins and his counselors I 
Thev had to be concerned about it day and night in order to 
keep the enterprise alive: from which manifested care origi- 
nated the title "Book Concern/' which name first appears in 
the Conference Minutes of 179"?. After three years Mr. 
Dickins was released from pastoral work that he might give 
his entire time to his duties as superintendent of the Book 
Business. The sum of -$666.33 1-3 was the ^•estimate" for his 
salary and house rent. 

The first payment to the superannuate fimd was $307.29. 
During his term of office he published 114,000 volumes. Xot- 
withstanding the many hindrances lq the way his administra- 
tion was wise, prudent, safe and economical. By the blessing 
of God upon this one man's pioneer lalx)rs, he created influ- 
ences whose vibrations are now reaching the uttermost parts 
of the earth. He was a man of small stature but of great 
spirit: of qtiick apprehension and sound judgment; just and 
generous. He died at his post in 17 98 during a yellow fever 
plague. Stricken in the city he refused to leave it, even when 
urged by his friends by word and example. With his own 
hands he ministered to the sick and dying until he himself 
feU a victim to the pestilential ravages. His last words were, 
""Glory to Jesus ! I have not felt in seven years so much like 
trusting and praising Him.*' He was a notable figure among 
the fathers of Methodism. He was faithful in the pulpit, ''a 
thundering Methodist," and his loss was deeply felt by the 
Church. "According to his time and opportunity he was one 
of the greatest characters that ever graced the pulpit or 
adorned the society of Methodists.*' 

At the time of Dickins*s death the Rev. Ezekiel Cooper, 
who was the chairman of the Publishing Committee, was so 
shocked that he questioned whether another man could be 
found, qualified to take his place. An appeal from Bishop 
Asbury finally persuaded Mr. Cooper against his wishes to 
take up the work of the fallen leader: but consented to his 
appointment and election only on condition that it be ''year 
by year.'* The result showed that the mantle of EHjah had 
fallen on the shoulders of Elisha. ^Ir. Cooper found the busi- 
ness crippled by debt, and c-ollections badly in arrears. Mr. 
Dickins was an Englishman, slow in thought and movement. 



COOPER AND DICKINS 453 

steady, easy and indiilgent. Ezekiel Cooper was an American 
born, sharp, quick, aggressive man of affairs, and an expert 
in details. He infused new energy and introduced new 
methods. He stirred up the clergy and membership of the 
Church by setting forth clearly the aims and possibilities of 
the Book Concern. He began the custom of Conference visi- 
tation, and impressed on the preachers the fact of their owner- 
ship of and agency for the publishing interests. Consign- 
ments of books and supplies for sale and distribution were 
sent out to the presiding elders and pastors, who had to give 
an account of their stewardship and report collections and 
circulation to the Annual Conferences. The preachers worked 
tlie machinery and commercial advantages of this unique in- 
stitution for all they were worth, and very soon the Book 
Concern became a fountain of revenue; a hint to us, their 
living successors, that if we will loyally, industriously and 
thoroughly utilize the benefits of this educational, benevolent 
and money-making organization, we will reap an annual 
harvest of half a million dollars for Conference Claimants. 
So energetic and effective was Mr. Cooper^s work that he 
advanced the business capital from nothing to nearly $50,000. 

During a sermon preached by Freeborn Garrettson to a com- 
pany of Revolutionary soldiers his attention was attracted 
by the thoughtful, absorbing aspect of a boy thirteen years 
of age who was leaning against the gate. That boy became 
the illustrious Ezekiel Cooper. Early in life he gave promise 
of remarkable gifts and powers. At the age of twenty he was 
sent out as a circuit preacher. He was only thirty years old 
when he was appointed presiding elder of the Boston District. 
At thirty-six he was elected Publishing Agent. Mr. Cooper 
was an eloquent preacher, a very learned man, possessed of 
such a diversity of information that they called him the 
"walking encyclopedia." I can do but scant justice to these 
mighty princes in Israel. In fact, very little comparatively 
is written about them ; they are famous through their works 
which follow them. They need no elaborate biography, bronze 
tablets, towering monuments or glowing panegyrics to per- 
petuate their memory. The publishing house of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, of which they were the founders, is 
their enduring monument. 

150 Fifth Ave., New York. John" Krantz. 















ANNUAL CONFERENCE REPRESENTATIVES 

J. B. Gibson W. G. Kooxs L. E. Lennox 

W. H. Miller R. S. Borland E. C. Bass 

F. E. Bauchop W. K. Beans George Hartunq 

John Sweet G. Raihle G. C. Wilding 



ti 




JOHN STREET 
CHURCH, NEW YORK 

THE REV. J. WESLEY JOHNSTON, D.D. 

New York East Conference 



Just as at Plymouth Eock certain figures come into promi- 
nence and their names from henceforth are imperishable^ so 
in the early history of John Street Church there are those to 
whom Methodism is under obligations which will outlast the 
generations. 

Perhaps the first of these is Philip Embury, who was inti- 
mately associated with the beginnings of Methodism in New 
York. Of Irish birth, for he was born in the south of Ire- 
land, but of German blood, he combined some of the qualities 
of both races, being warm in spirit, fervid of soul, eloquent 
of speech, yet cautious, careful and singularly prudent in 
matters of business. In every way — temperament, habit, 
home training — Embury was eminently qualified for leader- 
ship. A man of less buoyancy would have failed in the years 
of discouragement; one of less prudence, in the years of pros- 
perity. 

Under the preaching of Wesley, who visited Ireland in 
1752, Embury was deeply stirred, and ere long entered into 
a gracious religious experience. His gifts as a speaker were 
soon recognized and he was appointed class leader, then local 
preacher, and at the Limerick Conference in 1758, where 
W^esley presided, he was recommended as an itinerant 
preacher and placed on the reserve list. 

In 1760 Embury emigrated to New York and for a time 
resided in John Street. At that time New York was a small 
city with a population of about twenty thousand, with no 
signs of immediate growth; for when a benevolent man 
offered six acres of ground, at Canal Street and Broadway, 
to the trustees of a Lutheran church, they declined the gift, 
saying that the land was not worth fencing in ! John Street, 
where Embury lived, was a suburb in the "North Ward." 

455 



456 THE RETIRED MINISTER 

But, though New York was small as compared with the 
New York of to-day, relatively it was perhaps even more 
wicked. For the presence of a large body of British troops, 
officered by men of profligate tastes, among whom gambling, 
drunkenness and vicious pursuits were common, affected the 
people generally and resulted in the coarsest forms of dissi- 
pation and sin. Eitlier through natural diffidence, or because 
of the strangeness of his surroundings, as far as we can ascer- 
tain, Embury made no serious attempt to rally his fellow 
Christians until the spring of 1766. 

This introduces another character, the far-famed Barbara 
Heck, a woman of rare piety and courage, through whom 
God began a work which not only continues to this day but 
with each succeeding year widens in influence and power. 
Like Embury, Bar])ara Heck too came from Ireland, and like 
him she was a Methodist; but, unlike him, she was not diffi- 
dent, neither was she restrained by those around her. Hence, 
with characteristic fearlessness, she entered the room where 
a company of men were playing cards, and instantly she re- 
buked them for what, to her, seemed a sin against God. Then 
gathering up the cards from the tables she flung them into 
the fire, meantime exhorting the men to abandon forever such 
abominable pursuits. Her next step was to seek Philip Em- 
bury to whom she said with intense feeling : 

"You must preach to us, or we shall all go to hell, and God 
will require our blood at your hands." 

"How can I preach, for I have neither a place nor a con- 
gregation ?" 

"You can preach in your own house," she promptly an- 
swered. And so he did — to a congregation of five — his wife, 
Paul and Barbara Heck, John Lawrence and Betty, a colored 
servant of Mr. Heck. 

Such was the beginning of American Methodism in Oc- 
tober, 1766. Just think of then and now ! Then five persons 
to hear the first sermon ; now five millions, and more, assemble 
in Methodist churches every Sunday to hear "the gospel of 
the grace of God." Then the little company met in a private 
house, now twice ten thousand churches would not accommo- 
date the mighty host. The Methodist Church in America 
is a miracle of miracles. 

The third person in this historic and immortal group is 



JOHN STEEET CHURCH 457 

Captain Thomas Webb, whose entrance on the scene was both 
dramatic and startling. One day when the little company 
had assembled for worship a stranger appeared dressed in full 
military uniform. All eyes turned anxiously to him. Why 
had he come? Did he mean to persecute them, to interrupt 
their service, to prohibit them from meeting together? But 
when they saw his earnest, devotional spirit, and the gladness 
with which he united in the service their fears were at once 
allayed and they gave him cordial welcome. When the service 
was over he introduced himself as, "Captain Thomas Webb, of 
Albany, a soldier of the cross and a spiritual son of John Wes- 
ley.^^ A thrill of gladness was felt by all present, for the 
coming of such a man, an officer in the king's army, meant 
a great deal to them. At that time Methodism was bitterly 
denounced almost everywhere. It was made the topic of 
ribald songs, sung on the streets and in the theaters. Ser- 
mons were preached against it in the leading pulpits. To be 
a Methodist was to incur ridicule. To have a man of the 
high rank of Captain Webb unite with the little Church at 
this time was, therefore, like the incoming of reenforcements 
to a beleaguered garrison. And, humanly speaking, the com- 
ing of no other man could have been more opportune. Hearty, 
earnest, popular in speech, courageous to a high degree, as 
many a battlefield bore witness, wonderfully effective as a 
preacher and with a zeal which never faltered or declined, 
Captain Webb was preeminently qualified to be one of the 
leading spirits in the founding of American Methodism. 

After the coming of Captain Webb, the room which Em- 
bury had hired became too small for the rapidly increasing 
congregation. So in 1767 a rigging loft was rented, on what 
is now known as William Street. The rigging loft was a 
long narrow room fitted up with plain benches, with a rude 
pulpit made by Embury himself. But God wonderfully hon- 
ored this unpretentious place. Every service was a season 
of gracious visitation. Divine favor rested on the word of 
the preacher. Conversions were frequent. Soon it became 
manifest that a larger place must be found. But where? 
And if found where was the money with which to erect a 
building. Those in that rigging loft society, with the exception 
of Captain Webb, were of the most humble conditions in life. 
But Barbara Heck, with the splendid faith of a heroic woman, 



458 THE RETIRED MINISTER 

insisted that the work was of God and that He would open 
their way, provided that they had the courage to follow His 
leadings. And so it proved; for in a way assuredly provi- 
dential a lot was secured on what is now John Street, then 
known as Golden Hill; and here was built, on this site on 
which the present John Street Church now stands, the first 
Methodist church in America. 

Like the rigging loft, only much more commodious, John 
Street Church was a plain, simple stone building, with gal- 
leries which at first were accessible only by ladders. The 
interior walls remained in their original rough plaster and 
the seats had no backs; the floor, however, had a coating of 
fine white sand. To meet the requirements of the law then 
prevailing in the colonies, which provided that no religious 
services could be held in churches other than those properly 
legalized, a fireplace and chimney were placed in the new 
edifice, thus technically making it a dwelling house. This 
was a bit of legal fiction to which dissenters at that time were 
forced to resort. Having no Bishop or distinguished church 
ofiicial to assist in the service of dedication, the privilege fell 
to Philip Embury, who, from a pulpit made by his own hands, 
preached the dedicatory sermon. 

And now the miracle of the rigging loft repeated itself. 
The same divine favor which had been manifested so wonder- 
fully there crowded the services of the new church, so that 
the congregations overflowed the building, at times filling the 
area in front of it. It was seen that Embury must have help, 
so in response to an urgent appeal Wesley sent Richard Board- 
man and Joseph Pilmoor. Robert Williams, however, eager 
for work in the new world, hastened to the port where a dear 
friend was about to sail, sold his horse to pay his debts, and 
carrying his saddle-bags on his arm, set ofl for the ship with 
a loaf of bread, a bottle of milk, but no money to pay his 
passage. His friend and fellow passenger, Mr. Ashton, met 
the expense, and on arriving in Xew York Robert Williams 
became the first regularly appointed minister of John Street 
Church. 

In 1771 Francis Asbury came as pastor. He refers to this 
in his journal, and a tablet giving something of Asbury's 
record may be found on the walls of the present John Street 
Church. 



JOHN STEEET CHURCH 459 

It is significant that during the years of the Revolution 
John Street Church was strangely delivered from either 
sacrilege or destruction. A fire in 1776, which started near 
Whitehall and destroyed one quarter of the city, consuming 
Trinity Church, the Lutheran church, and fifteen hundred 
dwelling houses near by, left John Street Church unscathed. 
And when the British army was using New York as its head- 
quarters, the churches generally were taken for military pur- 
poses; as, for example, the Dutch church on Nassau Street, 
which was occupied as a prison, John Street Church suffered 
no violation whatever. All of the Presbyterian churches were 
occupied by the military; the Baptist church was converted 
into a stable; the Quaker meetinghouse on Pearl Street was 
used as a hospital; and the Dutch church on William Street 
was made a jail for liberty-loving Americans; and yet John 
Street Church experienced no inconvenience, save that on Sun- 
day morning it was occupied by the Hessians for services con- 
ducted by their own chaplains; the Methodists using it at 
night, and at such other times as they desired for the worship 
of God. This is most remarkable, and it is something to 
remember with profound gratitude that for all these years, 
without a single Sunday's intermission, the gospel of the 
grace of God has been preached in old John Street Church. 

At the Conference of 1789 held in John Street Church 
John Dickins, a former pastor, and who had the honor of 
giving the Methodist Society the title of "Methodist Episcopal 
Church," was appointed Book Steward. The Methodist Book 
Concern was therefore born in John Street Church, for John 
Dickins with a borrowed capital of six hundred dollars, at 
once took up the work assigned him. 

In 1817 the first church gave way to one very much larger, 
and better adapted for the needs of the constantly increasing 
congregations, and the service of dedication was conducted 
by Nathan Bangs, Samuel Merwin, and Joshua Soule, later 
a Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. In this 
church John Summerfield preached his first sermon on his 
arrival from Ireland, and some time afterward served it as 
pastor. For years John Street Church was the stronghold 
of Methodism in New York; but in time business began to 
make serious inroads in that section of the city, so much so 
that in 1854 the trustees voted to sell the pro2;)erty and erect 



460 THE RETIRED MINISTER 

a new building on Madison Square. This led to a struggle 
worthy of Revolutionary days, for there was a defiance of 
law on the part of the downtown portion of the membership 
equal to that of the colonists. They literally entrenched 
themselves in the church building, eating in it, sleeping in it, 
holding services in it; finally arousing such a general 
sentiment against the sale tliat the proceedings had to be 
abandoned. 

The present church building is practically as it was when 
dedicated in 1841, and though the site on which it stands is 
one of the most valuable in New York, yet no board of trus- 
tees would suggest even the possibility of a sale. John Street 
Church does not belong to any trustee board, nor to any 
Annual Conference, nor to any General Conference, however 
august the body may be. John Street Church is the property 
of worldwide Methodism : the Methodism of the past, present 
and future. What Plymouth Rock meant to the Pilgrim 
fathers, what Bunker Hill meant to the heroes of the Revolu- 
tion, what Gettysburg means to this republic, old John Street 
Church means to Methodism, for it stands as the rock where 
our Church first had a foundation, it stands as a symbol of 
the battle that was fought against religious intolerance and 
persecution, it stands as the pledge and promise of God's 
favor for the generations to come. 

J. Wesley Johnston". 

1320 Forty-eighth St., Brooklyn, N. Y. 



WILLS ARE UNCERTAIN 

The old lady sent for her lawyer to make her will. 

"I wish to explain to you,'' she said weakly, ^^about my prop- 
erty." 

The lawyer was sympathetic. "There, there, don't worry 
about it. Just leave it to me." 

"0, well," said the old lady resignedly. "I suppose I might 
as well. You'll get it anjrway." 

If you would rather have the old preacher get it than the 
lawyer, buy Life Annuity Bonds. 




ST. GEORGE'S 

CHURCH, 

PHILADELPHIA 

THE REV. J. S. HUGHES, D.D., PASTOR 

Corresponding Secretary Preachers Aid Society 
Philadelphia Conference 



To Captain Thomas Webb belongs the honor of -unfuiiing 
the banner of Methodism in Philadelphia. He was an officer 
of the British Army, a man of good social position and of 
unstinted means, who had been converted under John 
Wesley, and was a licensed local preacher. In 1768 he visited 
Philadelphia, and began to preach in a sail-loft near the draw- 
bridge, which spanned Dock Creek. Here a class of seven 
persons was formed, Mr. Emerson being chosen leader, and 
among the first converts was Mr. Croft, the owner of the room 
in which the meetings were first held. After a time the 
meeting-place was changed to a house in Loxley's Court, a 
small thoroughfare east of Fourth Street running from Arch 
Street to Cherry Street. 

On October 21, 1769, Eichard Boardman and Joseph Pil- 
moor, missionaries sent to America by John Wesley, arrived 
in Philadelphia, and not knowing that there were any Meth- 
odists in the city, purposed making their way immediately to 
New York. But they met a man who had seen Mr. Boardman 
in Ireland, and who told them that, having heard of the 
arrival of two preachers, he was out looking for them. He 
informed them of the little company of Methodists and intro- 
duced them to Captain Webb. In a day or two Mr. Board- 
man went to New York as he had intended, wliile Mr. Pil- 
moor remained in Philadelphia. He preached in the regular 
place of meeting above mentioned, not only on Sabbath but 
frequently during the week; frequently at five o'clock in 
the morning. He also preached to immense congregations at 
the race-course, now Franklin Square, which at that time 
was considered to be quite out of town. The race-course gave 
Pace Street its name. Large audiences gathered to hear him 
preach in Potter's Field, now Washington Square. 

461 



462 THE EETIRED MINISTER 

The room in Loxley's Court soon became much too small 
for the constantly increasing congregation, and more ample 
accommodations were looked for. xA^bout this time an unfin- 
ished church building, located on Fourth Street near Story 
(now New Street), was sold at public sale. It had been 
erected by members of the High Dutch Reformed Church, 
who, becoming financially embarrassed in the project, were 
imprisoned for debt. It is said that some of their friends, 
surprised at finding them in prison, and asking for an ex- 
planation were told : "We are in prison for building a church.^^ 
The Provincial Assembly passed an Act authorizing the sale 
of the building in order to satisfy the creditors. While the 
public auction was in progress, a feeble-minded young man 
by the name of Hockley, entered the room, and by some 
singular impulse bid TOO pounds. This being the highest, 
some say the only bid, he was declared to be the buyer. His 
father, unwilling to reflect on his son by taking legal meas- 
ures to show his irresponsibility, paid the amount for which 
it was sold, and immediately began to inquire for a purchaser. 
Hearing that the Methodists were desiring a larger place of 
worship, he offered to sell them his newly purchased building. 
In a day or two, Mr. Miles Pennington, a prominent member 
of the Society, bought it for 650 pounds. It is said that the 
building had cost 2,000 pounds. The purchase price did not 
include the ground, which had been taken up on an annual 
ground rent of 24 pounds, redeemable within ten years by the 
payment of 400 pounds. The size of the lot was the same as 
that now occupied by the church and the Conference building 
on New Street. The church, which is 55 by 85, was regarded 
as of immense proportions, and its size was a matter of com- 
ment everywhere. 

The Methodists of Philadelphia of that period seem to 
have been quite prompt in their church movements. On 
Thursday, Nov. 23, 1769, the purchase was agreed upon, 
though the deed was not delivered till some months later. 
On the next morning Mr. Pilmoor preached in the church, 
and dedicated it to the worship of God. His text was Zech. 
4. 7 : "Who art thou, great mountain ? before Zerubbabel 
thou shalt become a plain ; and he shall bring forth the head 
stone thereof with shoutings, crying Grace, grace unto it.'' 
The feeble congregation must have had great faith in 



ST. GEORGE'S CHTJRCH 463 

God to have dedicated the building before having received 
the deed, and before having paid anything on the property, 
for there is no record that anything had been paid previous 
to this event. The owner of the premises must have had the 
utmost confidence, also, in the success of this struggling band. 
The first Sabbath in the new place of worship was a great 
day to the rejoicing congregation. Captain Webb preached 
in the morning and Mr. Pilmoor in the evening. A collection 
was taken at the evening service for the payment of the 
church, amounting to over 16 pounds. This was regarded 
as a large and generous offering. In a short time a section 
of the room was floored and provided with cheap benches, 
the discomfort of which gave their occupants but little temp- 
tation to drowsiness. The unfinished condition of the room 
made it difficult for the congregation to keep comfortable in 
the winter season, and the women were accustomed to bring 
little "wooden stoves'' for the feet, such as were used in the 
markets. Notwithstanding all these inconveniences, the Lord 
was with His people in a marvelous manner and added daily 
to their number. 

The deed for the property, dated Sept. 11, 1770, was given 
in the names of Miles Pennington, Richard Boardman, Joseph 
Pilmoor, Thomas Webb, Edward Evans, Daniel Montgomery, 
John Dowers, Edmund Beach, Robert Fitzgerald and James 
Emerson. The following is the "Trust clause" in the deed : 

"Nevertheless upon special trust and confidence, and to the 
intent that they and the survivors of them and the trustees 
for the time being, do and shall permit John Wesley, late of 
Lincoln College, Oxford, Clerk, and such other persons as 
he from time to time, and at all times during his natural life 
shall appoint, and no other persons, to have and enjoy the free 
use and benefit of said premises, so that the said John Wesley 
and such persons as he appoints, may therein preach and ex- 
pound God's holy word; and after his decease, upon further 
trust and confidence, and to the intent that the said trustees 
and survivors of them, and the trustees for the time being, do 
and shall permit Charles Wesley, late of Christ Church 
College, Oxford, Clerk, and such other persons as he from 
time to time, and at all times during his life shall appoint, 
and no others, to have and enjoy the free use and benefit of 
the said premises for the purposes aforesaid. 



464 THE EETIRED MINISTER 

"And after the decease of the survivors of them, the said 
John Wesley and Charles Wesley, then upon further trust 
and confidence, and to the intent that the said Richard 
Boardman (and others mentioned above) and the survivors 
of them and the trustees for the time being, shall and do from 
time to time, and at all times, hereafter forever permit such 
persons as shall be appointed at the Yearly Conference of the 
people called Methodists in London, Bristol and Leeds, and 
no others, to have and to enjoy the free use and benefit of the 
said premises for the purposes aforesaid; provided, always 
that the said persons preach no other doctrine than is con- 
tained in the said John Wesley's Notes upon the New Testa- 
ment, and four volumes of sermons. Provided also that they 
preach in the said house in the mornings and evenings of 
Sundays and of such other days of the week as by custom of 
the Methodists, may from time to time be set apart for that 
purpose. And upon this further trust and confidence that as 
often as any of them, the said trustees or of the trustees for 
the time being, shall die or cease to be a member of the 
Society commonly called Methodists, the rest of the said 
trustees or of the trustees for the time being, shall as conve- 
niently may be, choose another trustee or trustees in order to 
keep up the number of nine trustees forever." 

In 1777, after the battle of Brandy wine, when the British 
Army occupied Philadelphia, the church was used, for a while, 
as a hospital and afterward "as a riding schooP' for the cav- 
alry. Long after peace had been declared implements of war 
lay around the building. During the Revolutionary struggle 
the church was greatly distracted if not demoralized. The 
building, which it was thought had fallen so providentially 
into the possession of the needy society, was now closed 
against its members, and used for military purposes. At the 
close of the war the membership was reorganized with about 
forty or fifty persons and Ereeborn Garrettson was appointed 
preacher in charge. The building was plastered in 1784, 
fitted up with galleries in 1790 and in 1837, under the suc- 
cessful pastorate of Charles Pitman, was remodeled, and a 
basement constructed for Sabbath school and other purposes. 
For several years the edifice was not called St. George's, but 
was usually referred to by Mr. Asbury as "our preaching 
house in Philadelphia.'' 



ST. GEORGE'S CHURCH 465 

Francis Asbury, the first Methodist Bishop ordained in 
America, was always greatly interested in St. George's. He 
attended services in it on the evening of the day he arrived in 
America, and preached his first sermon in this country within 
its walls. He was its third pastor for a period of four months, 
which was about the limit of a pastorate at that time. He 
collected money for it in different parts of the country; in 
1772, 150 pounds, and ten years later 370 pounds. Dr. Coke 
spent his first Sabbath in America in St. George's, preaching 
in the evening. 

For fifty years it was the largest Methodist church in 
America, and was regarded as the cathedral of our denomina- 
tion. From its distinguished line of pastors, four at least, have 
been elected Bishops : Francis Asbury, Richard Whatcoat, 
Robert R. Roberts and Levi Scott. 

The first Methodist Conference in America was held at 
St. George's, commencing July 14, 1773. The second Con- 
ference in 1774, and the third in 1775, were held in the same 
place. This building is the oldest Methodist church edifice, 
used continuously for worship, in the world. City Road 
Chapel, London, was commenced April, 1777, and opened 
Nov. 1, 1778. The present John Street Church, New York 
City, was erected in recent years. 

No church in this country has done more for its denomina- 
tion than St. George's has done for Methodism. Revival fires 
began to burn on its altars on the very day of dedication, and 
for a hundred years these altars were almost constantly filled 
with penitents. Multitudes have been converted within its 
walls, among them many of the most stalwart characters of 
American Methodism. In a great revival in the pastorate of 
Charles Pitman, more than 1,300 persons professed conver- 
sion, from whom, it is said, at least fifty-five young men 
entered the itinerant ministry. 

For many years in the early history of Philadelphia Metli- 
odism, every new Church of our denomination, with one or 
two exce]3tions, was organized and fostered by St. George's. 

For thirty years the society has been struggling with down- 
town conditions, but is resolved to keep the doors of the 
old temple forever wide open to one of the most needy com- 
munities to be found in any city. 

Philadelphia, Pa. J. S. Hughes. 



4.Q6 THE RETIPuED MIXISTER 

AX AGED GOYEEXMEXT PEXSI0XT:R 

Thirty years ago the War Department learned that there 
was a white mule named Mexique, which had heen for many 
years in the service of the United States, but which had been 
ordered sold. The officers of the post desired permission to 
purchase the animal and care for it at their own expense. 

^lajor Gaenther reported that the mule was originally left 
at Key West barracks in 18-48 at the close of the war with 
Mexico. He added : 

"During the time that I served at Key West the mule did 
not miss a day's work. He is very old and has been worn 
out by his long service in the quartermaster's department. 
If there is any way to provide for him, I should be glad to 
have it done." 

The petition went through the regular channels until it 
reached the Quartermaster General, who indorsed it as fol- 
lows : 

"To promote the sentiment of kindness toward animals 
that are so intimately connected with military men, it is 
recommended that this mule be kept in the department, and 
left to the care of those whose kindly feelings are so deeply 
enlisted in its behalf." 

General Sherman submitted the case with the following 
report : 

"I have seen the mule, and whether true or not, the soldiers 
believe it was left at Big Spring, the time General Jackson's 
army encamped there. Tradition says that it was once a 
sorrel, but now it is white from age. The quartermaster's 
department will be chargeable with ingratitude if the mule 
is sold or the care or maintenance of it thrown on the char- 
itable officers of the post. I advise that it be kept in the 
department, fed and maintained until death." 

The Secretary of War thereupon made the following order : 
''Let the mule he kept and well cared for as long as he lives/* 




DEFERRED PAY- 
MENTS TO VETERAN 
PREACHERS 



THE REV. E. L. WATSON, D.D. 

Baltimore Conference 



The claim of the Retired Preacher is often put on the 
basis of sentiment. I prefer to put the five-million-dollar 
endowment on the ground of the payment of a debt long due 
the Preacher. The figures can be secured with sufficient 
accuracy to prove that a $5,000,000 fund would be but a 
part payment of what the Church owes the Preachers for 
the unpaid salaries which have accrued during the years. 

You will find some interesting matters in Bishop Mc- 
Kendree's diary, which I hold in my hands. Up to 1800 he 
was paid $G4 a year; after 1800, $80. This little book shows 
that in 1799 about one third of his sixty-four dollars was not 
paid. When he was given a pair of socks he carefully charged 
himself $1.50 to $1.80 per pair. All such gifts were sub- 
tracted from his salary, so that in that year he had only $40 
in cash, and gave ten dollars of that to the poor, leaving 
$30 for the year. Ilis expenses, exclusive of traveling ex- 
penses, were fifteen pounds ten and a half pence. He was 
serving the Church without any net income whatsoever. 
When he 'went on the Western District in 1800 his salary 
was raised from $64 to $80 a year. During the first quarter 
he received $3, the second quarter, $2 ; $20 in all for the first 
year. In 1802 the deficit was $36.23 out of the total salary 
of $80. 

Deficit 

I have gone over the statistics of the Baltimore Conference, 
and find that during the forty-two years from 1872 to 1914, 
there was a total deficiency in the Preachers' salaries of $232,- 
654; an average deficit of $5,539 each year. I asked a 
Baltimore expert accountant, Mr. Wilmer Black, the son of 
a Methodist Preacher, to tell me what would be the present 

467 



4:68 THE IJETIEED MIXISTEK 

value of an investment of five thousand doUars a year for 
fifty years with compound interest, and his figures were 
$613,827.48. In this calculation the deficits of seventy-five 
other years are not included, and only the support of pastors 
is included; not that of Presiding Elders. Superannuates or 
Bishops. Had ail the items been included during the entire 
histon' of the Baltimore Conference, the total deficit would 
have been at least $2,000,000: a sum which, if invested at 
five per cent, would give ^lOo.OOO annually to be divided 
among the eighty-eight Conference Claimants, or more than 
one thousand one hundred dollars each. 

This statement covers only one Conference. I am told by a 
member of the Central Pennsylvania Conference that their 
deficiencies exceed $500,000. So in every Conference, espe- 
cially in the older Conferences, there are sufficient deficiencies 
due the preachers to make it true beyond a doubt that the 
1915 CAMPAIGN is based on equity, and that it is not a 
charity but the tardy return to the Preachers to-day of what 
was justly due the fathers. It is the Veterans' right. 

Asbttrt's Last Pex Stroke 

I hold in my hand a remarkable document; the last pen 
strcike of the dying Asbury, a page from his journal, which 
reads in this fashion: 

Francis Asbury's Account with the nine Annual Conferences 
for the year 1S16. 

January 1st, to balance of 1815, $27.34^^. 

IS 16, to my allowance for the present year, $80. 

To sundries, while lying sick IS days in Cypress, $13. 

To allowance to J. W. Bond as traveling companion, $20. 

To cash paid to J. W. Bond for road expense, ST. 

March 21st^ to cash J. W. Bond. Quarterage. S20. 

29th, to cash to J. '^. Bond for road expenses, $10. 

He died on March 31, 1816; so that was his last entry, 
made only two days before his death. 
On the debtor side we read, 

Bv cash received January 1st from South Carolina Conference, 
$40.' 

By cash from the Virginia Conference, $30. 



4 



ASBURY'S LAST PEN STROKE 469 

Compounding the interest on just this part of Asbury's 
salary from January 1st to the close of March, 181G, the total 
indebtedness would amount to $52,000. 

Hundredth Anniversary of Asbury^s Death 

I have a suggestion to make. There is a difference of opin- 
ion concerning the proper date for the origin of American 
Methodism. In Baltimore we say that the original meeting 
place was in Maryland, and we are now celebrating the 
Sesqui-Centennial of American Methodism. But there is 
no doubt of the fact that on March 31, 1916, will occur the 
one hundredth anniversary of the death of Francis Asbury. 
With others who have the historic spirit I have been desirous 
that here in Washington there should be an equestrian statue 
of Francis Asbury, with his saddlebags, seated on his gray 
mare. The Presbyterians have a statue of Witherspoon, and 
the Lutherans, a statue of IMartin Luther. Was it not Presi- 
dent Roosevelt who declared that the Methodist Episcopal 
Church was the most American in type of any Protestant 
body? And there is no greater force making for American 
liberty than the Methodism that is represented in this Con- 
vention. A statue of Asbury on his horse, as he was when 
threading the intricacies of the eastern coast from Maine to 
Florida and from the Atlantic to the Mississippi would be 
eminently fitting — the payment of a debt due to him and to 
the great Church he created. The little monument on the 
Bishops' lot at Mount Olivet, Baltimore, where four Bishops 
lie, the humble shaft of marble reared there by the Church of 
the past generation, is not a sufficient monument to the repre- 
sentative of the greatest religious factor in the making of 
America. The forces emanating from John Street and Sam's 
Creek have had more to do with the spiritual upbuilding of 
American Protestantism than those which came from Plym- 
outh Rock. It is the Methodist, and not the Puritan, who 
has won out in the struggle for religious leadership in these 
lands; and therefore, recognizing that we owe him $52,000 
by the accretion of the years, might we not invest at least 
that much to his memory and to spur the Church to Christly 
sacrifice ? 

While we are doing this may we not bring the 1915 CAM- 



470 THE RETIRED MIXISTER 

PAIGX to a triumphant climax on March 31, 1916, the one 
hundredth anniversary of the death of this, the greatest of 
xA.merican Prcaciiers ! For the largest factor in the conserv- 
ing of the itineranc}', the greatest force in pushing the 
Preacher from the city into the rural districts, was Francis 
Asbury. The movement for the conservation of rural life, in 
many respects the greatest movement of our times, must date 
from this great prophet who, seeing that the salvation of 
Methodism and the evangelization of the continent was in 
the conquest of the country, provided for the coming of 
the itinerant Ministry. We never can pay the debt we owe 
him, but this recognition of debt cannot be given too soon. 
Why should not this great Convention, greater in its wider 
meaning beyond the walls of this building even than within 
them, determine that the time when we shall bring to a fitting 
climax this ten-million-dollar campaign and bring honors to 
his name who has been so little honored, shall be the one 
hundredth anniversary of the death of the immortal Asbury? 
Baltimore, Md. E. L. Watsox. 

DISCIPLINARY PROVISIONS FOR 

SUPPORT OF CONFERENCE CLAIMANTS 

IN THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL 

CHURCH 

Legislatiox for Coxferexce Claimaxts; Ixcludixg Re- 
tired ^IlXISTERS, AXD WiDOWS AXD DePEXDEXT 

Orpiiaxs 
The paragraphs are those of the Discipline. 

I. The Claim (^ 323) 

The claim to a comfortable support inlieres in the Gospel 
Ministry and rightfully inures to the benefit of the Preacher 
in the Methodist Episcopal Church, when he is admitted 
to membership in an Annual Conference. Such claim is not 
invalidated by his being retired, and at his death passes to 
the dependent members of his family. 

Retired Ministers, the widows of deceased Ministers (dur- 
ing their widowhood, and while they remain members of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church), and their children under six- 



METHODIST LEGISLATION 471 

teen years of age, are Conference Claimants and beneficiaries 
of the moneys hereinafter provided. For a year at a time 
and without prejudice to their rights, such Claimants may 
voluntarily relinquish their claim; or on recommendation of 
the Conference Stewards the claim may be disallowed by 
action of the Annual Conference, taken after opportunity to 
be heard has been given. 

11. Permanent Endov^^ment (^ 324) 
Moneys for the permanent endowment of the Conference 
Claimants of the entire Church shall be held by the Board 
of Conference Claimants located at Chicago, Illinois, and 
shall be administered through its Connectional Permanent 
Fund. The Board of Conference Claimants shall also ad- 
minister all gifts and bequests the custody of which is not 
otherwise designated, the income of which is intended for 
the use of Conference Claimants. 

Annual Conferences are authorized to establish and main- 
tain investment Funds, Preachers' Aid Societies, and or- 
ganizations and funds of similar character, under such names, 
plans, rules, and regulations as they may determine, the in- 
come from which shall be applied for the support of Con- 
ference Claimants. It is recommended that each Annual 
Conference provide for an incorporated Board to administer 
its permanent funds. 

III. Conference Stewards (^ 329) 

Each Annual Conference shall elect Conference Stewards, 
who may be either preachers or laymen, arranged in classes 
so that one third of the members shall be elected each year. 

The Conference Stewards shall ascertain what Claimants 
are in special need (that is, whose needs require more than 
can he paid to them from the Annuity Distribution) and, 
using as a general basis the estimates received from the Quar- 
terly Conferences and other available information, shall make 
an equitable allowance to them, which shall be paid pro rata 
from moneys available for that purpose. 

Upon the recommendation of tlie Annual Conference, the 
Conference Stewards may consider and act upon any claim 
which the Quarterly Conference may have overlooked. 

Each Annual Conference shall determine whether or not its 
Conference Stewards shall make a preliminary report; and. 



4:72 THE EETIEED MIXISTEE 

if so, whether or not it shall be read in open Conference or 
the action of the Conference Stewards be final. 

An Annual Conference shall have authorit}- to recognize as 
Claimants the widow and minor children of a former mem- 
ber, b}^ agreement with the Conference of which he was a 
member at the time of his death. 

IV. Methods of Distributiox (•[^ 330-333) 

1. The Axxual Coxferexce Axxuity Distributiox 
shall be made to Conference Claimants by the Conference 
Stewards according to the following regulations : 

The annuity claim of a Retired Minister who has been in 
the effective relation for thirty-five years as a member of an 
Annual Conference shall not be less than one half of the 
average annual salary paid to the effective members of his 
Annual Conference, House Eent excluded. 

The annuity claim of any Eetired Minister, determined by 
this standard, shall not be less than one seventieth (1-70) of 
the average salary of the effective members of his Conference 
multiplied by the number of years of his effective service, in- 
cluding two years on trial. 

The annuity claim of a widow shall be determined by the 
number of years during which she was the wife of a preacher 
while he was in the effective relation, as a member of an An- 
nual Conference, and shall be one half of the annuity claim 
of a Eetired Minister for such term of years. 

The term of a father's effective service shall determine the 
annuity claim of his child, which shall be one fifth of the 
claim of a Eetired Minister for such term. 

Moneys designated for Annuity Distribution shall be dis- 
tributed on the BASIS OF SEEVICE, and shall consist of: 

(1) The dividends of the Book Concern and the Chartered 
Fund. 

(2) The income from any investments made by the Annual 
Conference for Annuity Distribution and held in trust for 
this purpose. 

(3) Such gift-s and bequests as are made for Annuity Dis- 
tribution. 

(4) Such part of the annual support of Conference Claim- 
ants furnished by the pastoral charges as the Annual Con- 
ference may determine. 



METHODIST LEGISLATION 473 

2. The Annual Conference Necessitous Distribu- 
tion Shall be 

on the BASIS OF SPECIAL NEED, and shall consist of: 

(1) The annual Dividend for Connectional Eelief paid to 
the Annual Conference by the Board of Conference Claimants. 

(2) Such part of the support of Conference Claimants 
furnished by the Pastoral Charges, as the Annual Conference 
may determine. 

(3) The income from such gifts and bequests as are made 
for necessitous distribution. 

(4) Gifts and bequests made for immediate distribution. 

(5) Income arising from investments made by Relief and 
Aid Societies of Annual Conferences, if so determined by 
them. 

3. Connectional Relief Distribution Shall be 

to Annual Conferences by the Board of Conference Claimants. 

Board of Conference Claimants (fl 469-473) 
1. Authorization and Officers 

There shall be a Board of Conference Claimants nominated 
by the Bishops and elected by the General Conference, con- 
sisting of one effective Bishop, seven Ministers, and seven 
Laymen. No Annual Conference shall have more than one 
representative on the Board. 

The Board of Conference Claimants shall be duly and 
legally incorporated, according to the laws of the State of 
Illinois, with such powers and prerogatives as shall be needful 
for the accomplishing of the objects of the Board as herein 
stated. This Board is authorized to adopt such measures 
as in its judgment are necessary to build up and administer 
a Connectional Permanent Fund which is hereby established, 
and to increase the revenues for the benefit of Conference 
Claimants, provided, however, that it shall not have authority 
to make any apportionment whatever, either to the Annual 
Conferences or to the pastoral charges. Seven members shall 
constitute a quorum. The office of the Board shall be in 
Chicago, Illinois. 

The expenses of administration shall be taken from the two 
per cent of collections from Pastoral charges, and any other 
funds in the hands of the Board not otherwise designated. 



474 THE RETIEED MIXISTER 

The term of service of the members of this Board shall be 
four 3Tars, or until their successors are duly elected and qual- 
ified. Vacancies occurring during the interval of the General 
Conference shall be filled by the Board upon nomination by 
the Bishops. 

II. Corresponding Secretary 

There shall be a Corresponding Secretary who shall be 
elected by the General Conference, and shall be the chief ex- 
ecutive officer of the Board. Under the provisions of the 
Discipline and the authority, direction, and control of the 
Boards of which he shall be an advisory member, he shall 
conduct the correspondence and business. His time shall be 
employed in conducting the affairs and promoting the general 
interests for which the Board was created. 

III. COXXECTIOXAL EeLIEF 

Connectional Relief for Conference Claimants is established 
that the Preachers and people of the stronger Annual Con- 
ferences may be united with those of the weaker Conferences 
in one connectional or general plan in order that, by such 
cooperation, a more equitable and general support may be 
secured for Retired Ministers and other Conference Claim- 
ants, especially for those in the more needy Conferences. 

Such Connectional Relief shall consist of: 

(1) The three per cent of the annual collections for Con- 
ference Claimants forwarded from the Annual Conferences. 

(2) The income from all other sources the use of which is 
not otherwise designated and which is not required for the 
maintenance of the Board. 

^loneys for Connectional Relief shall be distributed by the 
Board of Conference Claimants at its Annual Meeting, to 
the Annual Conferences severally and not to the individual 
claimant. 

The Board of Conference Claimants, in determining the 
Dividend for Connectional Relief, shall ascertain from the 
authorized reports of the Conference Stewards of the several 
Annual Conferences what Conferences are in need of Connec- 
tional Relief, and shall make the distribution to such Con- 
ferences according to their need as this shall appear from such 
reports. 



METHODIST LEGISLATION 475 

The Eemainder of the available funds shall be distributed 
among the other Conferences as the Board of Conference 
Claimants may determine to be wise and equitable in view 
of all the data in its possession. 

No Conference shall receive Connectional Eelief unless its 
share of the annual collections shall have been paid into the 
Board of Conference Claimants. 

IV. Eeports 

The Treasurer of the Board of Conference Claimants shall 
send to the Treasurer of the Annual Conference a draft for 
the Dividend for Connectional Eelief, together with the last 
Annual Eeport of the Board; in which shall be shown the 
resources of the Board, the amount and distribution of its 
income, and such other information concerning the work of 
the Church in behalf of Conference Claimants as the Board 
may obtain. 

The Conference Stewards shall forward to the Board of 
Conference Claimants a certified copy of their Eeport, made 
on blanks furnished by the Board of Conference Claimants, 
in which shall be shown the annuities and allowances made 
to each Conference Claimant, together with additional data 
for the guidance of the Board of Conference Claimants in 
making its Dividend for Connectional Eelief and in pre- 
paring its Annual Eeport. 



STEEL PENSIONEES GOT $511,967 IN" 1914 

The fourth annual report of the United States Steel and 
Carnegie Pension Fund shows the total disbursements for 
the year were $511,967, as compared with $422,815 in 1913, 
$358,780 in 1912, and $281,457 in 1911, making a grand 
total of $1,575,021 for the four years. 

The greatest disbursement was at the plants of the Carnegie 
Steel Company, where $122,914 were distributed. During 
the year 2,704 employees were on the pension list, an increase 
of 612 during the year. During the year 183 cases were dis- 
continued, so that on December 31, 2,521 remained on the 
rolls. 

The averages for cases added during 1914 were: Age 
63.33 years; service, 28.76 years; monthly jjension, $20.40. 






ANNUAL CONFERENCE REPRESENTATIVES 
H. L. Jacobs J. S. Hughes L. O. Sherburne 

W. H. Hughes Elwin Hitchcock W. L. Slease 




VETERANS OF THE MINNESOTA CONFERENCE 



Wm. McKixlet, W. C. Eice, Henry Bilbie, W. K. Marshall, E, R. Lathrop, E. H. Bronson 



A RETIRING COMPETENCY FOR THE 
RETIRED MINISTER 



PART IV 
THE CLAIM ILLUSTRATED 

FACT, STORY, SONG 

Fact, Story and Song illustrate the Struggles, 
Triumphs and Needs of the Veteran Ministers 
and make a large appeal to all. The Scriptures 
state the Relationships underlying the Principle 
of a Retiring Competency for the Aged Servants 
of God and His Church; the Press, both secular 
and religious, demands the Recognition of their 
Services, while The Story of their Devotion lends 
itself readily to Sentiments expressed in Poetry 
and Song. 



CHAPTER I. SCRIPTURAL TREATMENT 

PAGE 

The Old Arab Priest 478 

1. Helpful Homiletic Hints Sweets 479 

2. Modern Psalms Foulkes 501 



THE OLD ARAB PRIEST AXD THE OLD PREACHER 
Ret. J. D. Maddox, M.D. 

An aged Arab priest who had ridden with his people over 
rocks and burning sands in search of pasture and water for 
fourscore years is about to take his last ride. See him, 
with form still erect, leaning on his staff, his hair and beard 
white as snow. He stands apart turning his eyes, dim with 
age. toward the shoreless desert and the rising sun. His 
Arabian steed, with heavy flowino^ mane and tail clean and 
white as linen, seems to know that some bereavement has 
come into his life. 

Do you see that group of men standing at a distance in 
earnest conference? The old man knows what it means. 
Having grown old to the point of helplessness and dependence 
he knows that he must be dealt with according to the ancient 
custom of his people. The lots are cast and two men with- 
draw and saddle their steeds. Another saddles the beautiful 
steed of the old man who sadly but silently yields to their 
ministrations. They bathe him after their manner, and put 
on him clean apparel. All others ha^ e disappeared in their 
tents. The old man is silently and gently lifted into the 
saddle and those who drew the lots ride up, one on either side 
of him. "Without parley or "good-bys," at once and in silence, 
the three ride straight into the desert, from "early morn 
till high noon." Then as if by appointment they stop. 

The attendants dismount and gently lift the old man from 
his steed, and spreading a beautifully colored cloth on the 
sand, lay the old man not unlovingly upon it. Leaving him 
a crust and a bone, they take his stalf, mount their steeds in 
silence, take the leading-strap of the old man's steed and 
ride back to the camp. Xo questions were asked. 

I had thought of making an application of this story. But 
I cannot, it is too suggestive : and it makes its own applica- 
tion. I need not. 



I 



HELPFUL HOMILETIC HINTS 

THE REV. HENRY H. SWEETS 

Secretary Ministerial Relief, Louisville, Ky. 



Deut. 10. 8, 9. At that time the Lord separated the tribe of 
Levi, to bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand be- 
fore the Lord to minister unto him, and to bless in his name, 
unto this day. Wherefore Levi hath no part nor inheritance 
with his brethren; the Lord is his inheritance, according as the 
Lord thy God promised him. 

The Hebrew economy was in advance of anything that has 
thus far characterized the Christian Church. The Levites, 
set apart to the service of the sanctuary^ were provided for 
on a magnificent scale. Having no proper inheritance among 
the Children of Israel, they nevertheless were assured from 
any possible want from cradle to grave, and their widows 
and orphans after them. The abundant tithes and olferings, 
the levitical cities and their suburbs, and the sacredness of 
their calling, assured to all those who stood before the Lord 
to minister to him, the most ample, continuous and unfailing 
supply of all their wants. — Rev. Arthur- Pier son, D.D. 

The Assembly believes that of all the duties, not to say 
privileges belonging to the Church of Jesus Christ, there is 
none more sacred and tender than that of making suitable 
provision for those who have worn themselves out in her 
service, and for the lonely, dependent ones who have been 
left without any means of support. 

II 

Num. 18. 24. But the tithes of the children of Israel, which 
they offer as an heave offering unto the Lord, / have given to 
the Levites to inherit: therefore I have said unto them, among 
the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance. 

The veteran is entitled to rest, even wlien lii.s strength 

479 



480 THE EETIRED MINISTER 

remains. Tlie tenderest of care should be his when his 
streno;th has o-one with his years. 

It is the duty and responsibility of the Church quite as 
much to look after the workers as the work ; and its work will 
be better done if it does look after the worker. There is not 
a man living who will not throw himself more heartily into 
the work^ no matter how hard and difficult it is, or how poor 
the place, if he feels that behind him is the help of the 
Church when he is wounded or falls by the wayside. — Dr. 
Alfred J. P. McClure. 

Ill 

Num. 35. 2. Command the children of Israel, that they give 
unto the Levites of the inheritance of their possession cities to 
dwell in; and ye shall give also unto the Levites suburbs for the 
cities around about them. 

There are men who see to it that even the aged, worn-out 
beast of burden is provided for. Shall we be found less con- 
siderate of human beings? 

The ministry may not contribute directly to the creation 
of wealth, but they do render society service absolutely invalu- 
able. The pay is contemptibly inadequate. Se\'en hundred 
dollars was the sum which a church in Philadelphia recently 
thought ample for a faithful pastor to live and keep a family 
on a year, and even that is considerably above the average 
salary. The Bishop was right when he imputed to the dreary 
outlook for old age the disinclination of young men to enter 
the ministry. — The Philadelphia Public Ledger. 

IV 

Deut. 12. 19. Take heed to thyself that thou forsake not the 
Levite as long as thou livest upon the earth. 

Shall we pension the soldier, and fail to provide for the 
preacher ? 

On June 30, 1914, there were on the pension rolls of the 
United States 785,239 army and navy pensioners. To these 
the sum of $172,417,546 was paid in one year. Since 1866 
$4,633,511,926 has been paid to pensioners. 

The cause of Ministerial Relief has languished for many 
years because our ministers have been modestly reticent. 



HOMILETIC HIXTS 481 

This is not begging; it is counsel to do right, counsel that 
the people need, counsel for the lack of which the Church 
is daily forfeiting the precious blessings of duty done. Shake 
off your false modesty. Help the Church to do right. You 
know that many of your aged brethren are suffering through 
a neglect for which the people are not responsible, since they 
do not know the facts. It is in your power to make the facts 
known. Therefore, take these words to heart : "Who so seeth 
his brother have need, and shutteth up his compassion from 
him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?" — Dr. Fulton. 

V 

Deut. 14. 27. And the Levite that is within thy gates; thou 
shalt not forsake him; for he hath no part nor inheritance with 
thee. 

Queen Elizabeth requested a merchant to go abroad on her 
service, and when he mentioned that his own business would 
be ruined, she replied, "You mind my business and I will 
mind yours." 

When the Church ordains a man to the Gospel Ministry, 
she says to him, "You minister to us in spiritual things and 
we wnll care for you in material things." This is the day of 
opportunity. If the Church does not act promptly, not only 
W'ill the cause of Ministerial Eelief suffer, but also the supply 
of candidates for the ministry will be seriously affected. If 
the father lies wounded on the field of battle uncared for, can 
we expect the son to fill his place in the depleted ranks of 
the regiment? — General Assembly. 

VI 

1 Cor. 9. 13, 14. Do ye not know that they which minister 
about holy things live of the things of the temple? And they 
which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar? Even so 
hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should 
live of the gospel. 

We believe God never meant the place of a minister to be 
ordinarily one of ample means or elegant luxury; but He does 
mean that no minister should be entangled in affairs of tliis 
life ; and to prevent this, it is more important than any other 
one thing to assure every servant of God that, whatever self- 
denial may be incident to tlie days of his actual and active 



482 THE EETIEED MIXISTER 

labor, wJien the day of work is over he shall not suffer want 
for the necessities of life; or, if prematurely called hence, 
shall not leave a wife and children to be cast on the charitv of 
the very Church he has self-denyingly served. — Dr. Pierson. 

The spirit of Christianity is beginning to permeate the 
national industrial, fraternal and educational circles of the 
world. Benefits, annuities and pensions are being provided 
on every hand. Some one has said : "The Church of God 
is disloyal to Christ and unfaithful, when she does not prac- 
tice, among her own, the gospel she preaches.'' 

YII 

1 Tim. 5. 18. For the Scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle 
the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The laborer is worthy 
of his reward. 

Lewis Elkin left one million, seven hundred and fift}" thou- 
sand dollars for pensioning the school teachers of Phila- 
delphia. It is called the Elkin Eelief Fund. 

It is an insult to call this charity; it is in the very highest 
sense a debt, and should be so honored as an imperative obli- 
gation OAved to those who use their days of strength in the 
service of our Lord; and no blessing can be expected on a 
Church which allows the veteran soldier of Christ to go down 
to his grave like an inmate of a poor-house, or a dependent 
on charity, looking for a miserable pittance bestowed as on a 
beggar, for the bare subsistence of life. — Dr. Pierson. 

Many a man of the world would provide for a faithful old 
dog or the family horse better than the churches provide for 
those who have served their Master and humanity faithfully 
until infirmit}' beset them. — Philadelphia Public Ledger. 

VIII 

1 Cor. 9. 7-10. Who goeth a warfare any time at his own 
charges? Who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit 
thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the 
flock? Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the 
same also? For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not 
muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth 
God take care for oxen? Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? 
For our sakes, no doubt, this is written; that he that ploweth 
should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should 
he partaker of his hope. 

"Doth God take thou^lit for oxen?" Shall He not take 



HOMILETIC HIXTS 483 

thought for these servants, who have toiled in the field through 
the noon- tide heat, as oxen toil in the furrow? Surely God 
must put it into the hearts of His people to do something 
toAvard the fund that pathetically describes itself for the relief 
of aged pastors. — Margaret E. Sangster. 

Eev. J. W. Wallace said before his death, "When I came 
out from Kentucky I brought a good horse. He served me 
faithfully many years as a ^family horse.' When he got to 
be twenty years old, I fenced off a ten-acre lot of the best blue 
grass in Jackson county. I said : 'Xo matter how much 
drought I'll never let any stock in old Jake's preserves.' " 
The night old Jake died, he sat up all night with him. 

IX 

1 Sam, 30. 23, 24. Then said David, Ye shall not do so, my 
brethren, with that which the Lord hath given us, who hath 
preserved us, and delivered the company that came against us 
into our hand. For who will hearken unto you in this matter? 
But as his part is that goeth down to the battle, so shall his 
part be that tarrieth by the stuff; they shall part alike. 

Taught by time, my heart has learned to glow 
For others' good, and melted others' woe. — Homer. 

Who shall have the spoils? Well, some selfish soul suggests 
that those treasures ought to belong to those who had been 
out in active service. "We did all the fighting, and we ought 
to have all the treasures." But David looked into the worn 
faces of these veterans who had stayed in the garrison, and 
saw how cleanly everything had been kept, and that the bag- 
gage was all safe; and knew how that these aged, wounded 
and crippled men would gladly enough have been at the front 
if they had been able, and said: "No! no! Let us have fair 
play; *As his part is that goeth down to the battle, so shall 
his part be that tarrieth by the stuff.' " 

There is high encouragement for those who once wrought 
mightily for Christ and the Church, but who through sickness 
or collapse of fortune or advanced years cannot now go to 
the front. These two hundred men of the text were veterans. 
Let that man bare his arms and show how the muscles were 
torn. Let him pull aside the turban and see the mark of 
the battle ax. Pull aside the coat and see where the spear 



484 THE EETIRED MINISTER 

thrust him. AVould it have been fair for those men, crij^pled, 
weak and old^ to have no share in the triumph ? — Talmage, 

X 

Prov. 3. 27. Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, 
when it is in the power of thine hand to do it. 

To neglect an}^ one who needs our help is to neglect Christ 
Himself.—/. R. Miller, D.D. 

AMiat do we live for if it is not to make life less difficult for 
each other? — George Eliot. 

Cornell University has a retiring pension of fifteen hundred 
dollars for its professors. 

"Withhold all eulogies when I am dead. 

All noisy sorrow; 
Give me the tender word to-day 

Instead of tears to-morrow. 

XI 

1 Tim. 5. 8. But if any provide not for his own, and spe- 
cially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and 
is worse than an infidel. 

Germany, Denmark, Xew Zealand and some other countries 
have pension systems for working men, of advanced years and 
good moral character. 

The Church must face and solve the problem of proper 
pension and care for its disabled and superannuated ministry. 
Justice and Christianity both demand it. To leave the aged 
workers to humiliation and distress and poverty is unchristian 
and unwise. 

The man of fifty thousand dollars who brings five, twenty, 
or one hundred dollars to the altar of God, and says, "This 
is all I have to spare," lies to God, as Ananias never did. 
Tens of thousands are living in luxury, spending money for 
vanity and pride, gluttony and sensuality, submitting a mere 
bagatelle to the use of the Holy Spirit. — Bishop A. ^Y. Wilson. 

XII 

Gal. 6. 10. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good 
unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of 
faith. 



HOMILETIC HINTS 485 

The measure of a gift is in what is kept. — Alexander Mc- 
Kenzie, D.D. 

The Eoman Catholic Church guarantees to its old priests 
six hundred dollars annually. 

Faithful soldiers are falling by the way, overcome by the 
burden and the heat of the day. Some linger a little while. 
They need our brotherly sympathy and help. Others have 
fallen to rise no more until the bright morning; but their 
dependent ones call for our tenderest care. — D?\ Agneiv. 

Help us to help each other, Lord, 

Each other's cross to bear; 
Let each his friendly aid afford, 

And feel his brother's care. 

XIII 

1 Cor. 16. 1, 2. Now concerning the collection for the saints, 
as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. 
Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him 
in store, as God has prospered him, that there be no gatherings 
when I come. 

God sees to it that the cheerful giver never has to go out of 
business for lack of ca|)ital. — The Eam's Horn. 

There is a Carnegie Eelief Fund which applies to all the 
Carnegie iron interests for pensions and relief of iron workers. 
It disbursed over $250,000 in 1904. 

1 bring before you the small army of aged ministers. Do 
you see them ? Their hair is thin and silvery ; their faces are 
furrowed and their forms bent; they are feeble. Leaning 
upon some strong arm, each one goes forward, tottering. 
Soon they will be beyond our help. But they are here now. 
We see their hands clasped in holy prayer; we hear their 
tremulous voices as in union they cry out, "Cast us not off in 
time of old age!'' That prayer ascends to heaven; it reaches 
tlie ears of the Almighty, who at once sends it back to us 
and bids us answer it. We are to take the Lord's place and 
provide for these faithful old servants. — Dr. Peter Stryher. 

XIV 

2 Cor. 8. 13, 14. For I mean not that other men be eased, and 
ye burdened; but by an equality, that now at this time your 
abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance 
also may be a supply for your want; that there may be equality. 



486 THE EETIRED MIXISTER 

Every Christian should label his pocketbook with the words 
of the Lord's lease, "Occupy till I come/' 

Andrew C^arnegie has given ten million dollars for the pen- 
sioning of old professors and teachers in the colleges and 
schools of the United States. 

Do YOU realize that there are ao:ed and enfeebled ministers, 
wlio have broken down in the service of Christ and your 
Church, refined, patient, godly men who are inadequately 
supplied with life's necessities, or wholly unprovided for now, 
to-day, at this present time; while thousands of dollars are 
l)eing given to ol)jects very remotely related to the Kingdom 
of (Jod, or to charities whicli are often unappreciated, and 
wliicli accomplish little good. Some one lias said, "This is 
a perversion of a Christian idea. It is the Church neglecting 
to practice anioui^' her own the gospel she preaches." — Dr. 
Alfred J. r.VcClure. 

XV 

1 Cor. 12. 25, 26. That there should be no schism in the body; 
but that the members should have the same care one for another. 
And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; 
or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it. 

There are scores of private firms and corporations and 
railroads now pensioning their employees and officers. 

"Is thy cruse of comfort wasting? 
Rise and share it with another, 
And through all the years of famine, 
It shall serve thee and thy brother." 

— Mrs. E. R. Charles. 

XVI 

1 Tim. 6. 17-19. Charge them that are rich in this world, that 
they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in 
the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; that 
they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to dis- 
tribute, willing to communicate; laying up in store for them- 
selves a good foundation against the time to come, that they 
may lay hold on eternal life. 

There is no happiness in having and getting, but only in 
giving. Half the world is on the wrong scent in pursuit of 
happiness. — Henry Drummond. 

The Church of Scotland, from Sustentation Funds and 
tithes, gives her Eetired Ministers a pension of $800 to $900. 



HOMILETIC HINTS 487 

There are many needy ones who will not apply for help 
because the Eelief Fund is so small and they feel that there 
are others who need the help more than they do. There was 
an aged and infirm Minister. The last handful had been 
taken from the barrel of meal. When he Avas asked why he 
had not applied for assistance, his reply was, ^'Because I 
thought there might be many of God's servants in greater 
need, and I knew the supply was small." — Dr, Stryker. 

XVII 

Prov. 11. 25. The liberal soul shall be made fat; and he that 
watereth shall be watered also himself. 

In giving, a man receives more than he gives, and the more 
is in proportion to the worth of the thing given. — George 
Macdonald. 

XVIII 

Eccl. 11. 1. Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt 
find it after many days. 

We lose what on ourselves we spend. 
We have as treasure without end 
Whatever, Lord, to Thee we lend. 

To feed tlie hungry and relieve the distressed, to take care 
of the workers in the household of faith, when they are sick 
and disabled and old, is one of the fundamental duties of 
Christianity, and no matter what other urgent claims there 
may seem to be, we believe that, because this first and primary 
duty is neglected, the Church is poor and hopeless, and lack- 
ing in courage and brave initiative. — Dr. McClure. 

XIX 

Prov. 19. 17. He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto 
the Lord; and that which he hath given will he pay him again. 

A bag that does not wax old is one that will never fail to 
send an income. There are men in heaven who were rich 
while on earth, and who in some wise beneficent ways 
invested their property with a view to results in another ^vorld. 
Ask them, "Are you getting any income from your invest- 
ments down there?'' "0, yes, a wonderful income. There 



488 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

is a continual stream of persons coming in here who were 
started heavenward or were helped on their way by those 
investments. They are beginning to come up out of all lands 
and tribes and kindreds and tongues/' Many earthly invest- 
ments pay dividends in heaven. — Williain Ashmore. 

There was a man, they called him mad, 
The more he gave, the more he had. 

XX 

2 Cor. 9. 1, 2. As touching the ministering to the saints, it is 
superfluous for me to write to you: for I know the forwardness 
of your mind, for which I boast of you to them of Macedonia, 
that Achaia was ready a year ago; and your zeal hath provoked 
very many. 

The Presbyterian Church is endeavoring to increase its 
endowment fund to $10,000,000. In 1908 this Church con- 
tributed more than $374,000 for present needs. 

During 1914 the Methodist Episcopal Church paid more 
than a million dollars to its aged Ministers, widows and 
orphans. During 1915 it will engage in a campaign for 
$10,000,000 as the 150th Anniversary Jubilee Gift. 

XXI 

2 Cor. 9. 9, 10. As it is written, He hath dispersed abroad; he 
hath given to the poor: his righteousness remaineth forever. 
Now he that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread 
for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the 
fruits of your righteousness; 

For his bounty. 
There was no winter in't; an autumn 'twas. 
That grew the more by reaping. — Shakespeare. 

For the heart grows rich in giving: 

All its wealth is living grain; 
Seeds which mildew in the garner, 

Scattered, fill with gold the plain. 

XXII 

1 Cor. 9. 11. If we have sow^n unto you spiritual things, is it a 
great thing if we shall reap your carnal things? 

Andrew Carnegie has given five millions for rewarding 
heroes and pensioning them. Good ! 

Some day a millionaire may establish a "hero fund" for 



HOMILETIC HINTS 489 

country ministers who spend their lives in the service of the 
community, not only ministering weekly to their congrega- 
tions, but marrying the young people, visiting the sick, bury- 
ing the dead, and being always ready to respond to the call 
of need of any kind. — Youth's Companion. 

If the man in the pulpit helps you with his thought and 
speech, recognize it as you do the work of the lawyer who 
counsels you what course to take when Smithes cow straddles 
your fence and eats your corn. Eecognize it as you do the 
work of the doctor who cures your boy who had eaten too 
many of your neighbor's green apples. When these bill you 
for services, you own your debt and pay up. But the minister 
will seldom ask for his. His fiber won't stand that strain; 
but he will beg for other and less needy institutions than 
his own home and study shelves. — Chronicle, Halifax. 

XXIII 

Acts 20. 35. I have showed you all things, how that so laboring 
ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the 
Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to re- 
ceive. 

There is on record an admirable prayer of Thomas Sutton, 
the pious founder of the Charterhouse, "0, Lord, Thou hast 
given me a large estate, give me a la^-ge heart." 

XXIV 

2 Cor. 8. 9. For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, 
that ye through his poverty might be rich. 

You can give without loving, but you can't love without 
giving. — Marion Lawrance. 

Every dictate of justice, humanity, gratitude and religion 
urges us to care more adequately for our worn-out Ministers, 
who are in need after spending their lives in most self-denying 
service to Christ and the Church; and to assist the widows 
and helpless orphans who have shared the privations of those 
who, having served their generation by the will of God, have 
^'fallen asleep." 

Help us to help each other, Lord, 

Each other's cross to bear; 
Let each his friendly aid afford, 

And feel his brother's care, 



490 THE RETIRED :\I1NISTER 

XXV 

Heb. 6. 10. For God is not unrighteous to forget your work 
and labor of love, which ye have showed toward his name, in 
that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister. 

The assistance which the Church gives for Ministerial 
Relief brings more cheer and sunshine into darkened homes 
than you can imagine. The gratitude of the beneficiaries is 
unbounded. They are constantly remembering at the Throne 
of Grace those who have made this help possible. Have you 
a place in their prayers ? 

Me let the tender office long engage 

To rock the cradle of reposing age. — Pope. 

XXVI 

Gal. 6. 6. Let him that is taught in the word communicate 
unto Him that teacheth in all good things. 

The average mechanic in Xew York City receives an aver- 
age of $4.60 a day, which makes $1,380 a year for 300 working 
days. 

He had some money, and instead of hoarding it, hunted up 
one of God's aged and disabled ministers, Paul, and used part 
of the money for him. The record reads thus : "The Lord 
give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus, for he oft refreshed 
me, and was not ashamed of my chain. But when he was in 
Rome, he sought me out diligently and found me. The Lord 
grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that 
day." 

If Onesiphorus had held on to his money and let Paul 
suffer, he could have enjoyed it only a few years ; he parted 
with his money, and helped the suffering Minister of God, 
and it has given him nineteen hundred years of pleasure. — 
Dr. Thomas E. Co diverse. 

XXVII 

Matt. 10. 41, 42. He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a 
prophet shall receive a prophet's reward; and he that receiveth 
a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a 
righteous man's reward. And whosoever shall give to drink 
unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the 
name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise 
lose his reward. 



HOMILETIC HINTS 491 

Give strength, give thought, give deeds, give pelf, 

Give love, give tears, and give thyself; 

Give, give, be always giving, 

Who gives not is not living. 

The more we give. 

The more we live. 

These Ministers have been retired, not because of any want 
of courage or eagerness for the battle, but because they have 
grown old in the service or have been wounded in the fight. 
Their loneliness and want should touch every soul. This 
cry goes up from their hearts : 

"How long, Lord, to wait 
Beside this open gate? 
My sheep with many a lamb 
Have entered, and I am 
Alone, and it is late." 

XXVIII 

Matt. 18. 5. And whoso shall receive one such little child in 
my name receiveth me. 

Her husband was in the ministry eighteen years, preaching 
to weak churches for a very small salary. Her five children 
were in school. She wrote : "Knights of Pythias paid for 
books of smaller children last term. Have managed by close 
economy to keep out of debt until now, but am falling behind 
and the future looks very gloomy. If the children have 
to stop school, I see nothing ahead for them." Yes, the 
Church is ahead of them, the almoner of God's mercy. 

The Church is not a myth. She is as much an entity as 
the state, and she claims far more than the state ; she claims 
to be a mother. Why not then take care of her sick and 
aged and children? — G. H. McKnight. 

It is not the deed we do. 

Though the deed be ever so fair. 
But the love the dear Lord looketh for, 

Hidden with lowly care 
In the heart of the deed so fair. 

XXIX 

Mark 9. 41. For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to 
drink in my name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto 
you, he shall not lose his reward. 



492 THE EETIKED MINISTER 

That man may last, but never lives, 
"Who much receives, but nothing gives; 
Whom none can love, whom none can thank. 
Creation's blot, creation's blank, 

— Thomas Cribbons. 

The widows have endured hardness as they stood by the 
side of their husbands in the poor mission fields of our 
Church. They are making a brave struggle to meet the needs 
of their families at a time when the cost of living is greatly 
increasing. The beneficiaries are dying off rapidly. Help 
now to bring relief to the "saints" who are in need. 

"To comfort and to bless. 
To find a balm for woe. 
To tend the lone and fatherless. 
Is angels' work below." 

XXX 

James 1. 27. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the 
Father is this; to visit the fatherless and widows in their afflic- 
tion, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. 

Of some of the appeals for relief which come to us it might 
be said, "Cut the words and they would bleed." They rarely 
breathe any note of complaint; they are spoken in the ear 
in closets, but they throb with a meaning big enough to be 
proclaimed upon the house tops. No servant of the Cross 
can ask to be exempted from the obligation to endure hard- 
ness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, but surely the Church 
should not wait to see how well her aged or widowed or 
orphaned ones can starve. 

Never are kind acts done 

To wipe the weeping eyes. 
But like the flashes of the sun 

They signal to the skies; 
And up above, the angels read 
How we have helped the sorer need. 

XXXI 

Psa. 87. 3. Trust in the Lord and do good; so shalt thou dwell 
in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. 

A chairman wrote concerning a beneficiary: "He is most 



HOMILETIC HINTS 493 

worthy in every way. In his work he has been faithful and 
zealous, successful in promoting the cause of the Gospel, and 
is one of Christ^s sincere, patient, tender and loving disciples. 
I think he will never have the strength to preach again and 
believe that his life is drawing to a rapid close. He is rest- 
ing on the promise, ^Trust in the Lord and do good ; so shalt 
thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be f ed.^ ^' 

XXXII 

Psa. 37. 25. I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not 
seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. 

Many of the old servants of Christ and his Church have 
this same child-like faith in their Heavenly Father. But God 
does not send the ravens to feed them, as He sent to the 
prophet of old. He does not rain the manna from heaven, 
as He did to feed the children of Israel in the wilderness. He 
says to us, ''Give ye them to eat." 

XXXIII 

Job 5. 26. Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as 
a shock of corn cometh in his season. 

In latter days of Confederacy when boys sixteen and seven- 
teen years of age were being sent into war, Alexander Stephens 
said: "We are burning up the seed-corn. The war must 
stop.'' Not so much danger of burning up seed-corn to-day 
in the army of God as of neglecting the ripe ear in the shock. 
— Dr. J. W. Bachman. 

I'm growing fonder of my staff, 
I'm growing dimmer in the eyes, 
I'm growing fainter in my laugh, 
I'm growing deeper in my sighs, 
I'm growing careless of my dress, 
I'm growing frugal of my gold, 
I'm growing wise; I'm growing, yes — 
I'm growing old. — Saxe. 

XXXIV 

Psa. 92. 14. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they 
shall be fat and flourishing. 

Age is not all decay ; it is the ripening, the swelling of the 



491 THE RETIRED MIXISTER 

fresh life within, that withers and bursts the husk. — George 
Macdonald. 

A faithful veteran, who has lost his eyesight, and because 
of rapidly failing health has had to give up his charge, said 
at a delightful communion service : '*T want you to think of 
me. as the shadows are lengthening across my path, as still 
holding out the light of God's truth to guide the wanderers 
Home.'' 

XXXV 

Psa. 71. 18. Now also when I am old and grayheaded, God, 
forsake me not; until I have showed th\' strength unto this 
generation, and thy power to every one that is to come. 

In 1913. the Pennsylvania Railroad Company had on its 
pension rolls 3,9T5 former employees to whom it paid $1,165,- 
996.33. 

Forsake me not when I am old; 

The daylight wanes, my work is done. 
My feet draw near the streets of gold, 

I wait the setting of the sun. 

Forsake me not when I am old, 

When youthful vigor is no more; 
When in the twilight gray and cold, 

I sit and wait the summons o'er. 

XXXVI 

Lev. 19. 32. Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head and 
honor the face of the old man, and fear thy God: I am the Lord. 

Our youth we can have but today; 
We must always find time to grow old. 

— Bishop Berkeley. 

I thank God for the presence of our old men, who, unable 
to bear the burden and the heat of the day, are praying for 
the peace and prosperity of Zion, and with trembling voice 
are bearing comfort to bereaved souls. God bless the Fathers 
in Israel who still tarry with us, and spare them to bless the 
Church of Christ with their ripe experience and consecrated 
wisdom, and to fill the communities and homes in which they 
live with the delightful fragrance of their Spint-filled lives. — 
Dr. W. H. Frazer. 



HOMILETIC HINTS 495 

Forsake thee not when thou art old? 

Thy Father hears thy trustful prayer, 
His arms of love shall thee enfold; 

His hand thy table shall prepare. 

Forsake thee not when thou art old? 

We hear the call; the churches tvake; 
The heart that won us to the fold 

Our grateful love shall ne'er forsake. 

XXXVII 

Philem. 13. Whom I would have retained with me, that in 
thy stead he might have ministered unto me in the bonds of the 
gospel. 

One can easily get stirred np over this matter when he 
begins to examine facts and figures — and yet few sermons 
are harder for some of the ministers to preach. If he were 
only a layman for that sermon ! Or if it were his people, the 
laity, who were facing a homeless old age, and all the min- 
isters had homes of their own, and he were preaching to them ! 
Then how easy it would be to put fervor and heart-power 
into the appeal. But to seem to plead for self, for bread and 
clothes and shelter — no wonder many a man and his family 
are suffering rather than to let their wants be known. — 
Church Standard. 

Not what we give, but what we share, 
For the gift without the giver is bare; 
Who gives himself with his alms, feeds three, 
Himself, his hungering neighbor, and Me. 

— Lowell. 

XXXVIII 

2 Tim. 4. 9, 21. Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me. 
Come before winter. 

Tlie Old Merchants Eelief Fund of Philadelphia gives a 
])ciisi()n of three hundred dollars to old merchants. 

"And yet it never was in my soul 

To play so ill a part. 
But evil is wrought 'by ivant of thought 
As well as want of heart." — Hood. 

There is surely no want of lieart in the Church. But many 
have not thoiujht of this need. Have you'i 



496 THE RETIRED MIXISTER 

XXXIX 

The title to Psalm 71, in the American Revision reads, 
"Prayer of ax Old Max for Deliveraxce." 

The Psalm photographs the hopes, fears, faith and prayers 
of a Veteran Preacher. The tone is plaintive yet trustful, 
but the Psalm ends in gladness, and expresses in mingled 
prayers and thanksgiving the pathetic history of blended joy 
and sorrow throughout an anxious, patient and finally trium- 
phant life: 

"In thee, O Jehovah, do I take refuge; 
Let me never be put to shame. 
Deliver me in thy righteousness, and rescue me: 
Bow down thy ear unto me and save me. 

"For thou art my hope, Lord Jehovah: 
Thou art my trust from my youth. 
Cast me not off in my old age: 
Forsake me not when my strength faileth." 

The Aged Minister becomes jealous for the good name of 

Jehovah, because the world was saying that God had been 

unfaithful to Him. 

"Mine enemies speak concerning me. 
Saying, 'God hath forsaken him.' " 

So the old Preacher tells his experience : 

"My mouth shall tell of thy righteousness, 
And thy salvation all the day. 

I will come to the mighty acts of the Lord Jehovah, 
I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only. 
O God. thou hath taught me from my youth: 
And hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works, 
Yea, even when I am old and gray-headed, 
O God, forsake me not." 

XL 

Heb. 13. 16. To do good and to communicate forget not; for 
with such sacrifices God is well pleased. 

Gal. 6. 10. Let us do good unto all men, especially unto them 
who are of the household of faith. 

Give as you would if an angel 

Awaited your gift at the door; 
Give as you would if tomorrow 

Found you where waiting is o'er; 
Give as you would to the Master 

If you met His searching look; 
Give as you would of your substance. 

If His hand your offering took. 



HOMILETIC HINTS 497 

Every one may have the joy of the Patriarch Job who ex- 
claimed: "Because I delivered the poor that cried, and the 
fatherless, and him that had none to help him, the blessing 
of him that was ready to perish came upon me ; and I caused 
the widow's heart to sing for joy. I was eyes to the blind, 
and feet was I to the lame. I was a father to the poor : and 
the cause which I knew not I searched out." Job. 29. 12-16. 

XLI 

Matt. 25. 34-40. Then shall the King say unto them on his right 
hand, Come, ye blessed, of my Father, inherit the kingdom pre- 
pared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was an 
hungered, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me 
drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and ye 
clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and 
ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, 
Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, 
and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took 
thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, 
or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer 
and say unto them. Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have 
done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done 
it unto me. 

VETERANS OF THE CROSS 

Miss E. E. Hewitt 

All glory to our Captain, for the Veterans of the Cross! 
They held aloft his banner, never counting earthly loss; 
They bravely fought the battles of the right against the wrong; 
They led the Lord's battalions with a hallelujah song. 

For all the faithful service of the Veterans of the King, 
O, let the Church they honored, glad and grateful tribute bring! 
They gave their lives' devotion: let us give them, as their right, 
The comforts that will fill them with contentment and delight. 

Salute, Christian soldiers, as the Veteran corps goes by; 
The angels wait their coming, in the city built on high; 
O, haste to render homage to these leaders, good and true, 
Before the gates shall open for the final grand review. 

XLII 

Matt. 26. 6, 7. Now when Jesus was in Bethany in the house of 
Simon the Leper, there came unto him a woman having an 
ALABASTER BOX of Very procious ointment, and poured it on his 
head. 

Do not keep the alal)astcr boxes of your love and tenderness 



498 THE RETIRED :\[IXISTER 

sealed until your friends are dead. Fill their lives with its 
sweetness. S[)eak approvino-, elieering words while their 
liearts can be thrilled and made happier hy them. The kind 
tilings you mean to say when they are gone say before they 
go. The flowers you mean to send for their coffins send to 
brighten and sweeten tlieir homes. 

If my friends have alabaster boxes laid away, full of 
fragrant perfumes of sympathy and affection, which they in- 
tend to break over my dead l)ody, I would rather they would 
bring them now in my weary and troubled hours, and open 
them, that I may be refreshed and cheered. I would rather 
have a plain coffin, without a flower, a funeral without an 
eulogy, than a life without the sweetness of love and sym- 
pathy. 

Let us learn to anoint our friends beforehand for their 
burial. Post-mortem kindness does not cheer the burdened 
spirit. Flowers on tlie coffin cast no fragrance backward over 
tlie weary way. 

I'd rather buy a cheap bouquet 
And give to my friend this very day, 
Than a bushel of roses, white and red, 
To put on his coffin when he's dead. 

XLIII 

The AYidoav's Mite 

Mark 12. 42. And there came a certain poor widow, and she 
threw in two mites, which make a farthing. 

''Jesus sat over against tlie treasury.'' lie still sits there, 
watching. All our giving is in his sight. 

''And hell eld/' not critically or with fault-finding, Imt 
delighted. 

"How the people cast money into the treasury/' "^'Flung 
it." They like to do it. Methodists alone ^^flung" in $40,- 
000,000 last year. 

"And many that were rich cast in much/' Thank God 
for consecrated wealth ! 

"And there was a certain poor luidow/' Xameless? Yes. 
But so were the "rich/' Xo discrimination here. 

"And she threw in/' just as the saints "cast their crowns" 
before the throne. It's the same word. the Lordliness! 



I 



IIOMILETIC HIXTS iUI) 

the prodigality of her giving! She gave with the abandon 
of a spendthrift King ! 

''Two Mites." Is that a climax or an anti-climax? Call 
it a mill — the tenth part of a cent — and you exaggerate. 

"And he called his disciples unto him/' It was '^too good 
to keep/' He was afraid that they would not ^'catch on'* ! 
that the rattle of the Pharisees' gold would distract their 
attention. 

''/ say unto you that this poor widow hath cast in more 
than all." Eelatively? Yes. But actually "more than all." 
For they quit. She is still "flinging it in." 

"For all they did cast in of their abundance." "Super- 
fluity/' "overflow." I wish that the Church of Christ would 
do even that much — reach the standard of the Phari- 
sees and give some of their "overflow" money to the Veteran 
Preachers. When that standard of giving is reached the 
Church will have millions for the Retired Ministers, for the 
"overflow" alone is reckoned by hundreds of millions. 

"But she of her want." "Penury," contrasted with "super- 
fluity." God bless this Princely Giver ! The dictionary of 
your experience does not contain the word "want/' but is 
crowded with the synonyms of "superfluity." 

"Did cast in all that she had, all her living." Every coin 
she had in the world. 

Two mites — half a mill ! How small ! But the collective 
voice of the ages cries out, 

"0 ! Woman ! Great is thy munificence !" 

XLIV 

"Barzillai was a very aged man; and the king said unto him, 
Come thou over with me, and I will sustain thee with me in 
Jerusalem, and whatsoever thou shalt require of me, that will 
I do for thee." 

This is not the first time David met Barzillai. When the 
young king was pursued by Absalom, Barzillai "brought beds, 
basins, earthen vessels, wheat, barley, meal, parcluHl grain, 
beans, lentils, parched ])ulse, honey, butter, sheep and clieese 
for David and the people that were with him to eat; because 
tlie people were hungry and weary and thirsty." In recog- 
nition of this service rendered 3'ears before, David provided 
for Barzillai in his old age, and not as a "benevolence" com- 



500 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

plainingly or grudgingly given, but as duty on the ground of 
the past service rendered by him in his better days. 

In the same way the Veteran Ministers rendered us unsel- 
fish service in the days of their strength, and we owe them 
not a miserable charity, but an adequate support. The sal- 
aries of many of our Ministers are barely adequate for a live- 
lihood. It would be truer to say, barely sufficient for subsist- 
ence. Such men when they are too old to be any longer in 
active service, will come to poverty unless the Church which 
has benefited by their work makes provision for their needs. 
The Church must act as fairly in this matter as did King 
David. 

The inadequate support given to many of our Ministers 
during the 3Tars of tlieir active service is not the only reason 
why we should provide for them in their old age. We insist 
that ministers shall not divert their attention from their 
holy work through commercial distractions. Why, then, 
should we not provide an adequate support for them in their 
declining and unproductive years? 

What is good for commerce and education ought to be good 
for religion. ^linisters are not caring to make fortunes, but 
they do desire the assurance that they shall not come to pov- 
erty in their old age. Shall it be said in regard to the pension 
system that "sons of this world are in their own generation, 
wiser than the sons of light" ? When the Church has as sensi- 
tive a conscience on the right of preempted service as David 
had what may we not expect in promises for the cause of 
Retired Ministers! — Dr. A. D. Batclielor, in the Butte Miner. 




MODERN PSALMS 



THE REV. W. H. FOULKES, D.D. 



THE FATHER OF THE FATHERLESS 

The Psalm of the Widowed Mother 

They were cradled in childhood when God took him; they awak- 
ened, and, lo, they were fatherless. 
I held them to my heart, hut it was too hot with grief. 
The flood gates were opened, but my tears brought no succor. 

He was strong and manly; I helped him carry the load. 
When death knocked at the door, I offered myself. 
It scorned my pleading and carried away my beloved. 

When I awoke from the trance, I saw hungry mouths. 
My precious ones called for their father's help. 
My cup of grief was full of bitter dregs. 

Then God sent His angels; Goodness and Mercy knocked at my 

door. 
They entered and removed their outer garments; 
They kindled the fire on my cheerless hearth. 

They fed me with good things; my darlings shouted and laughed. 
I sent them at length to the school of instruction. 
They have grown into youth: yet their arms are still about their 
widowed mother. 

The Father hath remembered the fatherless; He hath visited the 

desolate mother. 
The people of God comfort me every day, they do not fail. 
The thanksgiving of the widow and the fatherless arise like 

incense unto God. 



501 



509 THE RETIRED MIXISTER 

GOD IS MY REFUGE 

The Psalm of the Aged Saint 

God is my refuge, I am resting in Him. 

Old age has come upon me, yet I am unafraid: 

Days of adversity have befallen my lot, but I am secure. 

In the hour of my weakness I cried unto my Deliverer, 
"Send help, I beseech Thee," and He heard my moaning. 

My years of fruitful ministry have passed like a dream; 
Young men have risen up to stand in my stead. 

Relief has come to me from the Most High by the hands of His 

people. 
Every morning I bless the Lord for the kindness of His servants. 
Friends have ministered to me of their substance and I am filled. 
Unto the end of my days my bread will not fail. 

God has opened His hand and the hearts of His chosen ones. 
Exult, my soul, for I am forgotten neither of God nor of men! 



THE JUDGE OP THE WIDOW 

The Psalm of the Lonely Soul 

Jehovah is my Judge; He only knoweth my loneliness and grief. 
For thirty years we walked together, yea for two score years and 

ten. 
The young man took me from my father's house, we builded our 

own altar to God. 
Jehovah filled my lap with children; lo, He hath taken them 

away. 
We only were left: I felt for my husband's hand, but I could not 

find it. 
I am left alone, but my Redeemer is with me. 
In the morning I rose to eat bitter bread, but my table was filled 

with goodness. 
Loving hands ministered to me; my meal and my oil did not fail. 
I put on sackcloth, but the people of God gave me garments of 

love. 
I opened a little door, but it led me into a large room. 
My eyes are dim and my ears are dull, yet I am full of joy. 
Loving-kindness is turning my tears into pearls. 
My soul is adorned as a bride for her husband. 
Blessed be God who hath moved His people to visit me. 
In but a little while the days of my desolation will be ended. 
Jehovah is my Judge: His people are my faithful helpers and 

friends. 



PART IV. THE CLAIM ILLUSTRATED 

CHAPTER II. STORY AND SONG 

PAGE 

1. The Happy Man Collins 505 

"Is He Worth It?", Western Christian 
Advocate, 514; Hope for the Superan- 
nuates, 514 

2. Old Preacher's Soliloquy Brown 515 

The Rev. Nowknowsbetter's Letter, 520; 
Not by Hard Luck Stories, 522; Super- 
annuated, 524 

3. Our Veterans Greenfield 526 

4. The Light Brigade Kipling 528 

Who Forgets? 529 

5. Veterans! Hough 530 

6. Different Ways We Treat Them Welch 531 

Aged German Ministers 532 

7. The Circuit Preacher Townsend 533 

8. Quitting Too Soon . Guardian 534 

9. Wanted — A Minister's Wife 536 

10. A Strong Church Matleson 537 

11. Miscellaneous: 

The Forgotten Man, 539; Love Me Now, 
Larimore, 540; Making Money for 
God, 541; The Old Packing Boxes, 
McKibbin, 542; Aged Ministers, 543; 
The Lord's Nickel, 543; For All the 
Saints, 544; The Young Minister, 545; 
Statesmen and Ministers, 545; Grand 
Army of the Church, 546; Ministers' 
Sons, 546; Be a Booster, 547; The Pres- 
byterians, 548; Indian Summer of Life, 
648; The Second Mile, Moore, 549; 
The Village Chapel, Lloyd George, 549; 
The Blind Girl Knows, 550; The Saddle- 
bags, Royal, 550; He Left All, 551; 
Southern Pacific Railroad, 551; New 
York Fire Department, 552; Thrown to 
the Scrap Heap, 552 

12. Proceedings Washington Convention.. . Snyder 553 

13. A Summary Hingeley 568 

14. Music: 

Veteran's Camp Fire, Hingeley, 572; Facing 
the Suns(>t, H(>witt-Gabriel, 573; Aged 
Minister's Prayer, Whittlesley, 574; 
Scatter the Flowers Now, Martin, 574; 
The Sun is Rising, 576 

15. Index 577 




THE HAPPY MAN 

HENRY ALBERT COLLINS 

"The Life Annuity Man" 



"Well, it^s just no use, nephew, I'm utterly discouraged. 
Sanitarium treatment may be beneficial in some cases, but it 
certainly aggravates my condition. I was ill when we came 
here, and seeing the lame, the halt and the afflicted of every 
nation under heaven is getting on my nerves. Why, I never 
knew before that there were so many afflicted people in the 
world.^^ 

"But you know, uncle, you've only been here a week. The 
doctors say that the conditions here are apt at first to aifect 
everybody in this way, but those who persevere in these treat- 
ments usually get well or, at least, obtain relief. Besides, if 
you do not stay here, where can you go ? You have tried all 
sorts of physicians and many health resorts without getting 
much relief and home is no longer home to you since auntie 
left us." 

"That is true, nephew, and life is getting to be intolerable. 
During the best years of my life I was a devotee to business. 
The Genii of the Arabian fairy tales were no more slaves to 
the wonderful lamp than I have been to my business. I wor- 
shiped in season and out of season the great American god. 
Business. The goal of my ambition was wealth, and I've 
reached it. When I should be enjoying the fruits of my labors 
I have neither the capacity nor health to do so. The wise man 
was right when he said, ^Iluman life is vanity and a striving 
after wind.' Wliy, I've not seen a happy man for five years, 
and I don't ever expect to see another one." 

"Well, there is at least one happy man in this institution, 
uncle. I met him yesterday and I've had my eye on him ever 



smce." 



"Oh, I suppose that it's some young fellow like yourself 
who does not know what the real problems of life are," 

505 



506 THE l^ETIKED MINISTER 

"^N'o, uncle, his hair is as gray as yours and his step has 
lost the spring of youth, but his face reflects the sunshine 
which is within, and his laugh rings true. I think that he is 
certainly the happiest man I ever saw. In fact the attendants 
here dub him, ^The Happy Man !' " 

"He must be the proprietor and sees his institution full of 
Avrecks of humanity and hears of men and women who are 
burning their candle at both ends, and who in time are likely 
to come here. Of course he is happy. He has a line prospect 
of laying by something for a ^rainy day.' " 

"No, uncle, he is one of the patients and has been here sev- 
eral months. He has kind words and a smile for everybody. 
He seems to be perfectly happy. It does a fellow good to hear 
him talk, and you know the wise man said, ^A merry heart 
doeth good like a medicine.'" 

"By George ! nephew, I'll have to get acquainted with ^The 
Happy Man.^ What's his name ?" 

"That I cannot say. I do not know his name, neither 
whence he comes, nor his line of business." 

"Well, I'll have to get acquainted with him. He reminds 
me of Sir Walter Scott's story of the Eastern potentate who 
was afflicted with melancholia. After he had suffered many 
things at the hands of his doctors without avail, he took his 
mother-in-law's advice, to travel until he found a perfectly 
happy man, and to borrow and wear his shirt. By so doing he 
would absorb happiness and his melancholia would fly away. 
He tra^■eled throughout many lands in vain, for everyone he 
met had troubles of his own. Coming at last to l)onnyl)rook 
Fair he saw the ol)ject of his search — a carefree, hap])y 
]nan. He commanded his servants to seize him, strip him 
and secure his precious shirt. But alas ! the happy man 
had no shirt. I wonder if your 'Ha])py Man' wears a shirt. 
If he does I would like to either beg, buy, borrow or steal 
it." 

"You had better try your luck. Uncle, and if you are as good 
a trader as your competitors say you are, you will have no 
difficulty in securing his magic garment." 

"Well, bring him to me, nephew. I would like to see one 
happy man in this institution." 

"Let's go out on the veranda, uncle. A while ago I saw 
him taking a sun bath out there. I know him well enough to 



THE HAPPY MAN 507 

give you a sanitarium introduction, and I am sure that he 
will be glad to meet you/^ 

They found tlie "Happy Man," and the nephew excused 
himself, going to the gymnasium. 

The uncle seated himself beside "The Happy Man/' and 
began questioning him. He said, "I have been told that the 
helpers at this sanitarium call you, '^The Happy Man.' I don't 
know what they call me, but if they should call me ^The Mis- 
erable Man,' they would not miss the mark." 

"My dear sir, why should a man be miserable in such a 
beautiful world as this?" 

"As for its beauty, I have no eye to see it. Wherever I look 
I see misery, and whenever I listen I hear moans. The world 
calls me a successful man. Men usually found it hard to 
overreach me in a business way, and I have secured a goodly 
portion of this world's goods, and that's the world's idea of 
success. In fact it was my own idea until recently. My wife 
is dead, I have no children living to inherit my wealth or to 
perpetuate my name, and I have few personal friends. I 
have two houses furnished with all the comforts of life, but 
no home. I lost my health in the pursuit of wealth and now 
I am of all men the most miserable." 

"But, sir, you have a nephew who seems to be a fine young 
man. I know that he is very fond of you." 

"Oh yes, he may be in a way, but he has no business abil- 
ity. If I should leave him my money I can already see his 
finish. He would not only lose all the money but would ruin 
himself. Let me tell you a little of his history. He was a 
clerk in a large commission house. One day he came to me 
and said, ^Uncle, I have a chance to buy out the business of 
my employer wdio wants to retire. There is another young 
man connected with the house who is willing to put in twenty 
thousand dollars if I will put in fifty-five thousand dollars. 
That will give me the controlling interest in a splendid busi- 
ness. Will you please let me have the money?' I knew that 
he was a good, clean, young fellow and without any question 
gave him the fifty-five thousand dollars. In less than three 
months he was back again and asked me to give him twenty 
thousand dollars so that he could buy out his partner's inter- 
est. I gave it to him, and it was not long until he wanted 
twenty-five thousand dollars more to make some improve- 



508 THE RETIRED MINISTEE 

merits in his place of business. I let him have the money. 
When he asked me for another twenty-five thousand dollars 
I began to think it was time for me to investigate and under 
my questioning he made a clean breast of the matter. He 
had been speculating, and had gotten on the wrong side of 
the market and had lost all the money. 

"So my money is not doing me much good and has not done 
my nephew any good. I'm here to be treated and I have some 
little hope of being cured, but even were I well again I could 
not go into business with the old time vim and energy, for my 
illusions have perished. Yes, I am truly a miserable old 
man." 

"My dear sir," said "The Happy Man," "your case interests 
me greatly. In many resj^ects it is like my own. I, too, lost 
my health through too close application to business. My 
children passed away in their childhood. My wife and I are 
growing old, but notwithstanding that fact we are happy be- 
cause we have found our mission in life." 

"May I ask what is your mission ?" 

"Certainly. You said the helpers of this sanitarium call 
me, 'The Happy Man.' I am more often called, 'The Annuity 
Man.' My mission is to preach the gospel of life annuities." 

"Oh, I see, you sell life annuities." 

"Xo, sir. I have nothing to sell, but I have bought some 
Life Annuity Bonds. My mission in life is to teach prospec- 
tive annuitants the value of these bonds. AYhen I persuade a 
man to invest in Life Annuity Bonds I feel that I have con- 
ferred a great favor upon him which he can only repay by 
enlisting others in this excellent work. The old proverb says, 
'A man cannot eat his goose and have it, too,' but the Life 
Annuity system enables us to do that very thing. We can 
eat our goose, and have it, too, when we invest our money in 
Life Annuity Bonds." 

"Go on. I be2:in to see what vou are drivinor at." 

"The Happy Man" continued, "If a man is a true Chris- 
tian, God is a silent partner in all of his business enterprises. 
He is, as St. Paul says, 'A laborer together with God, God's 
husbandry, and God's building.' If we are His building He 
ought to dwell in us. If we are His husbandry we should 
bring to Him the increase. To be a co-laborer with Him is 
man's greatest privilege, and it is my desire to avail myself of 



THE HAPPY MAN 509 

it to the utmost. By buying Life Annuity Bonds of Christian 
institutions, I insure my own living; by preaching the gospel 
of Life Ainiuities to others I perpetuate my influence. There- 
fore, you see that I am cooperating with Him in building His 
kingdom on earth now, and my money invested in Christian 
institutions will continue the work after I have gone home. 
If you would find true happiness go thou and do likewise. 

"I have no patent on this plan and would like to see you 
give it a fair trial. Would you ^put on immortality' while here 
on earth, then put your work and your money into institu- 
tions designed to help mankind.'' 

The miserable man shrugged his shoulders and shifted his 
chair as he answered, '^Oh, that's like life insurance. I carry 
policies in several first-class life insurance companies, but 
I can't say I ever got much happiness out of them. The only 
reason I continue to pay premiums on them is that it is the 
only way I can escape from them without great loss. I must 
pay until I die, and I must die to win. If that's your recipe 
for happiness it don't take much to make you happy." 

"No, sir, you are mistaken, Life Annuity is very different 
and very much better than life insurance. When a man 
insures his life he does it usually sO that those dependent 
upon him may be assured of an income after he is dead. Life 
insurance tends to shorten life, because a man who loses his 
health or fails in business and cannot keep up the payments 
on his policies is often tempted to commit suicide so that his 
family may get his insurance before the policy lapses. You 
rarely pick up a newspaper without reading of some one being 
murdered for his or her life insurance money. This is the 
great difference between life insurance and Life Annuities. 
Life insurance shortens one's life; Life Annuities lengthen 
it because in the life insurance game you must die to win, 
but in case of Life Annuities you have to live to win. A Life 
Annuity Bond does not insure your life but it insures your 
living, because you must live to win, and that tends to pro- 
long your life." 

"Oh, I see, sir, there is a difference between insuring your 
life and insuring your living. I know that life insurance has 
in it the danger you refer to. I knew a young lawyer, a bright 
manly fellow, in my home city. He had a wife and three fine 
children and a splendid practice. He got the political bee 



510 THE RETIRED MI^^ISTER 

ill his bonnet, became a candidate for governor and made a 
strenuous and expensive campaio'n for the nomination, but 
was defeated. His defeat brought on a nervous attack and in 
a moment of delirium he committed suicide. His life was 
heavily insured, and suicide seemed to him to be the only 
way for him to provide a living for his family. I see that 
life insurance often has a tendency to shorten life. You said 
that Life Annuity Bonds lengthen life. Can you prove it?" 

"'Certainly. Macaulay said, 'Annuitants are iiotoiiously 
long lived.' The reasons for this are obvious. The annuitant 
has insured his living. He is free from the labor and cares 
that are incident to making a livelihood in these days of keen 
competition, hence he can live his life on natural lines, which 
tends to prolong his days." 

"This is a new business proposition to me and it is cer- 
tainly interesting and worth looking into. Tell me more 
about this Life Annuity business. How old is it?" 

"A])out twenty-five hundred years," replied '^The Happy 
Man," "but it is only during the past one hundred years that 
the business has assumed its present magnitude. The system 
is older than all forms of life insurance. It is on a strictly 
scientific basis, and is as reliable as anything human can be." 

"What induced you to put 3'our money into life annuities?" 

"My wife and I for many years have been interested in 
benevolent Christian organizations. We have, from time to 
time, given a few dollars to worthy institutions. Having a 
small income and being in poor health I was not able to earn 
much money, so could not give largely to any one object. We 
needed the interest from our principal for our daily needs. 
When the life annuity system, which had been adopted by 
certain organizations, was brought to our attention we found 
that we were able to place our money with them and be 
assured of our interest being promptly paid. The first hun- 
dred-dollar Life Annuity Bond which we bought proved so 
satisfactory that since that time we have placed nearly all 
our money out on Life Annuity Bonds." 

"Who are issuing these Life Annuity Bonds?" 

"Well, I have Life Annuity Bonds in Christian colleges, 
missionary societies, church ])uilding societies, hospitals, or- 
phanages, and homes for the aged, and similar organizations 
connected with the Baptist, Christian, Congregational, Meth- 



THE HAPPY MAN 511 

odist and Presbyterian denominations. I invested money 
with them after carefully investigating their business methods 
and their work, and thus know more about their lines of 
good work than ])ei'sons who have made no such investiga- 
tions. I am interested in their work for God and humanity." 

"So you give them the money in a lump sum and then 
they pay you a regular income as long as you or your wife 
shall live? What becomes of the investment at your death?" 

With a bright smile on his face and a cheerful tone in his 
voice '^The Happy Man" replied, "It goes on doing good 
while I am resting in heaven. That's what the Bible means 
when it says, 'They rest from their labors; and their works 
do follow them/ And that's just what I mean by eating 
my goose and having it too. There are Methodist institutions 
for the care of Aged Ministers which are holding intact to-day 
moneys which were given by men who 'rested from their 
labors' a hundred years ago, and their works follow them as 
dividends to help Christ's Ministers to-day; and such works 
will continue to follow them as long as Methodism and the 
Eepnblic exist. The Life Annuity Bond is not only the best 
bond in the market but, in fact, it is the only bond worth 
having. My Life Annuity Bonds pay me dividends in two 
worlds. That's why I am 'The Happy Man' in spite of poor 
health." 

"But these organizations can't pay you any very high rate 
of interest and have anything left for their work, and when 
yon pay the taxes on these annuity bonds there will not be 
very much profit left for you, either." 

"That's another good thing about Life Annuity Bonds. 
They pay a very satisfactory rate of income, and there are 
no taxes, commissions or medical examinations. The organi- 
zation invests the money carefully, assumes all the risk and 
does all the work. I get the interest as long as I have any 
need of it, and then the money goes into the treasury of these 
organizations and continues to do good work as long as the 
world endures. How could one make a better investment?" 

"Yon said these institutions you selected were all safe and 
sound, now why did you put your money into so many organi- 
zations? Why did you not pick out the one you liked best 
and put all the money into that one?" 

"When I was a boy I was told, 'It is not wise to put all 



512 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

your eggs in one basket/ I believe that Christianity is not 
confined to denominational lines. We are told to ^Sow beside 
all waters/ and as I am interested in all these various causes 
I want to have a share in their work/' 

"That's a common sense way of looking at the matter. 
Whom do you advise to invest in Life Annuity Bonds ?" 

"Everyone who can afford to do so, but more especially 
men like you and me. I have known men who were once 
shrewd business men, but who lost all their property in their 
old age, and died pauj)ers. The clock does not always strike 
twelve. Neither is a man always at his best intellectually. 
He may have made a fortune when his powers were at their 
best, but has lost it when his powers began to decline, and 
courts will often pronounce such a man incompetent to do 
business or even to make a will. I once knew a man and his 
wife, farmers, who began their married life without any of 
this world's goods, but by the time they were sixty years old 
by diligent work amid many hardships were able to pay for a 
splendid farm of three hundred and twenty acres. They had 
two children, a daughter who never married and a son who 
left home and drifted to the city. Soon after the farm was 
clear of debt the old folks moved to the city to spend the 
remainder of tlieir days in comfort and ease. The farmer 
had never handled large sums of money and had no experi- 
ence in making investments, and so fell an easy prey of un- 
scrupulous men who swindled him out of all his money. How 
much better it would have been for him if he had put his 
money into Life Annuity Bonds with some reliable organiza- 
tions. It would not only have been a good thing for himself, 
wife and daughter, but he would not now be sleeping in a 
pauper's grave at the county poor farm." 

"My friend," said "The Miserable Man," "I do not wish 
to pry into your business affairs, but I do want to ask you 
an important question. In case you. had more money to 
invest would you put it into Life Annuity Bonds ?" 

"Yes, indeed, I would. That is what we are doing every 
year with the surplus of our income. My wife is just as 
anxious as I to place our money with these worthy organiza- 
tions during our lifetime so that we may see the enlarged 
work which they are able to do because we have lent a hand 
in their good works. 



THE HAPPY MAN 513 

'^Now let me ask you a question. Have you ever talked 
with other people who are holding Life Annuity Bonds ?^^ 

"No, sir. I never have." 

"Then you have missed a great pleasure, because it is a 
fact that the most enthusiastic friends of the Life Annuity 
Bonds are those who have tested them." 

"I thank you for this information, and now may I ask, 
do you know whether there is any way by which I can provide 
an income for my nieces and nephews after I am dead ? Two 
of my nieces are sorely afflicted and the brother of this nephew 
has no better business judgment than himself." 

"Yes, sir. There are Life Annuity Bonds from one hun- 
dred dollars and up which will suit all classes and conditions 
of people." 

The uncle said, "Since I lost my health I have been of 
no service to myself nor, to tell the truth, to anyone else. But 
since talking with you I have gained a new viewpoint of the 
possibilities and responsibilities of life, and I am glad that 
it is not too late for me to be of some service in the world." 

"I am glad to hear you say so. Of course you can be of 
service. Besides investing in Life Annuity Bonds for yourself, 
nieces and nephews, you can be the means of inducing other 
people to put their money into Life Annuity Bonds." 

"Yes, indeed, I can. I know several persons who should 
provide for one or more of their relatives or friends on this 
plan. I'll be so glad when I am well enough to go and see 
some of these people and tell them what a comfort and 
pleasure Life Annuity Bonds give the holder. You said a 
prospective annuitant had to apply for these bonds. Will you 
please tell me how to get a number of them?" 

"Indeed, I will. Wherever I go I find that the annuity 
system appeals to people like yourself. They take a new, 
personal interest in the organizations which have adopted this 
plan for securing money. But you will have to excuse me 
now, for I see my nurse is coming to take me to the treatment 
rooms. I'll see you right after my treatment. Meanwhile 
you might take down the address of the Rev. J. B. Ilingeley, 
Corresponding Secretary of the Board of Conference Claim- 
ants, 1018 South Wabash Avenue, Chicago." 

Note — For names of organizations which issue Life Annuity Bonds 
see page 2(S9. 



514 THE RETIRED MINISTER 

"IS HE WORTH IT?" 

In one of our Presbyterian exclianges there is a display 
advertisement headed ''Js He Worth It?" which goes on to 
say: "One of our aged ministers, in answer to a letter from 
the Board of Relief and Sustentation, writes that he has been 
in tlie Presbyterian ministry fifty-eight years; lias sent his 
three sons into that ministry; his average salary has been less 
than $450 ; he is now eighty-eight years old, and receives 
from the Board $150 a year, though entitled to $400. 

"Is he worth it?" asks the paper, and continues, "When 
you have answered that question, ask another, 75 tlie Pres- 
byterian Churcli ivorthy of liim and liis ministry?' '' 

It is some relief to us, as Methodists, to find that other 
Churches are in the. same situation and under similar condem- 
nation with the Methodist Episcopal Church in relation to 
its Retired Ministers. Certainly there must be an awakening 
of conscience in all Churches in regard to this. It is not 
charity or sentimentality, but simple justice and humanity. 
Our laymen must see the question in the broad light of doing 
the right and square thing by men who have made every 
sacrifice for the Church, the higher life of the Nation, and 
Christ's cause on earth. 

In answer to the question, "Is he worth it?" there should 
be a unanimous and emphatic reply, "Yes." — Western Chris- 
tian Advocate. 



HOPE FOR THE SUPERANNUATES 

Every Methodist preacher, old or young, and every friend 
of the preachers has reason to rejoice over the really great 
and successful efforts ^ui forth by the Board of Conference 
Claimants to provide a comfortable support for the Confer- 
ence Claimants. Better provision for the old preachers will 
put extra vim into the younger and relieve them of painful 
anxiety about their own future. It will also remove one 
cause of hesitancy on the part of young men who feel called 
to the ministry and yet have felt unwilling to devote their 
lives to a service which pointed to an old age of poverty. 




OLD PREACHER'S 
SOLILOQUY 

THE REV. C. C. BROWN, D.D. 



It was a little home in the country, three miles from a 
thriving county seat town. Sometimes the Sunday bells 
could be heard across the hills. A few plain pieces of fur- 
niture were set against the walls of the living-room, and in 
one corner were two shelves of books, resting on a box. The 
frost had already nipped the green foliage, and the air was 
sharp and biting. An old man, his feet in carpet slippers, 
sat beside a table on which a lamp was burning. Close to 
the hearth, in an easy chair, sat his wife, her hair as white 
as the cap that crowned her head. A widowed daughter, the 
sole dependence of the aged couple, was stirring about in 
the pantry and kitchen, getting ready tea and bread for the 
coming meal. 

"Wife, is there food enough ?" the old man asked. 

"I hope so," she replied ; "but even if there is not, we must 
not complain. In some way or other, the Lord will provide."' 

"0, I am not complaining — not complaining. I will not 
now, in these last days, go back on the teaching of my whole 
life. I spent many years trying to abate the anxieties of 
the people to whom I gave the gospel, telling them to trust 
and not be afraid. Now I am trying to practice what once I 
preached.'' 

The old man's mind and tongue were set going, and looking 
up toward a faded picture above the mantelpiece, he said : 

"But it does seem hard — hard to have come to want in 
old age, to be turned out on the grass because no longer able 
to work. Sometimes I wonder if it is really a sin to grow old. 
I call God to witness" — and his eyes filled up — "that for fifty 
years in the ministry, I did not spare myself. People some- 
times said of me, as they said of others, that I was preaching 
for money. But where is it ? Not even a home of my own — 

515 



516 THE KETIRED MINISTER 

no bonds nor stocks, nothing at all, but rather I am daily 
faced by the vexing problem of bread. I remember now 
some work I did — the churches I built in the face of many 
trials. One at Deep Creek, one in Mayburn, one at Oak Hill, 
one at Lay ton, besides those years of mission work in the 
lower country, where the fever took me and laid me up so 
long. That sickness was the beginning of the end. It does 
seem — now that 1 am in want — that 1 ought to have gotten 
some sort of pay for all of this work. In those days, when 
I gave away half of my living, and never thought to lay up 
a cent, I was only striving to accomplish what was before 
me. I did not look far enough ahead maybe. Surely I did 
not see the coming of any day like this, when you or I should 
have to wonder if we could get bread for another day. I have 
never known till noAV what these simple words in the prayer 
meant, 'Give us this day our daily bread.' And then the 
children — " 

"Xow, dear," interposed the wife, 'Vhy lament the children 
that God took? Maybe they went away to escape evil days." 

"0 3^ou misunderstood me ! I am not referring to the 
children of our flesh and blood. I gave them to God long ago, 
and I don't think that I ever have had a rebellious thought 
against Him for taking them. But my children in the gospel 
— I am talking of them. Where are they? How many have 
told me, weeping for joy, that they would never forget me ! 
Ho you remember that meeting at Deep Creek in the summer 
of '70? AVhat a time of refreshing that Avas! The easiest 
thing I had to do was to preach and tell the story. And it 
was just a year later that we had the great revival at Oak 
Hill. And then think of the long list of names of those 
who came into the Church through the long years ! 

"Xow that we have come to this sore strait, is it not natural 
for me to ask for my spiritual children, and to demand some 
help from them? Can it be that they have forgotten me? 
Paul, you know, seemed to think he had some claim on 
Timothy, because he was his son in the gospel, and it does 
look to me as if my children should remember their old, worn- 
out father. But they do not, and I think I can now see the 
end. If my thin blood refuses to flow, and I go down before 
long, as surely I must, I want to be buried over yonder at 
Oak Hill, where I labored and spent the very best years of my 



OLD PREACHER'S SOLILOQUY 51*^ 

life. I guess they will remember me when you carry my 
body back, and will want to put flowers on my coffin or on 
my grave. Yes, I hear them now singing about the old soldier 
and the warfare through which he passed. But, wife, flowers 
on my grave or in my stiff fingers are not as good as bread on 
an old man's table, and warm clothes on his back these winter 
days. To be alone in the world is not the worst solitude. 
The worst is that which we are suffering now — the sense that 
we are forgotten and that nobody cares for us, because we are 
old and cannot work any more. I know it is true that our 
life should be like the days, more beautiful in the evening, 
or like the summer, aglow with promise, or the autumn, rich 
with golden sheaves, when good deeds and good works have 
ripened on the field. But want may beget bitterness, and 1 
am afraid I will become bitter. 

"li I preached for money where is it? I had the burden 
on me of caring for hundreds of people, visiting them in their 
sickness, looking them up when they strayed from the church, 
marrying the living and burying the dead. I had to keep 
the Sunday schools alive, and work up the missionary enter- 
prises, and I held inquiry meetings, and wrote letters, and 
sat day and night beside the sick — sometimes only to hold 
the hand of the dying, who said they wanted me with them 
to the end. I tried to do it all. I followed many of them 
till their feet touched Jordan, and it seems to me that the 
love I bore for my children in the gospel would have made 
me willing to go on over Jordan with them. It was my joy 
to put their hands into the hands of Jesus, and bid them 
goodby for His better keeping. 

"Then there were the letters I had to write, the begging 
I had to do, the weak churches to visit, the quarrels to adjust, 
the poor to feed, the erring ones to reclaim, the visitors to 
entertain. I don't know, wife, how we stood it all. But I 
have nothing to regret. I would not undo any of it. I only 
wish I had been stronger and braver, and that the Master 
had loaded on more for me to carry. But to be as we are 
now after the work is over — this is the pinch. The house 
not ours, the land a stranger's, the pantry empty, our only 
child a servant and cook. I don't think God will censure 
me for asking, where are my children? Jesus cleansed ten 
lepers, and wheii only one returned to give thanks, he asked, 



518 THE RETIRED MINISTER 

*Where arc the nine?' Ah, Master, it makes the rough path 
a little smootlier, now tliat I see thou liast even gone this 
way before nie. I am not alone in knowing the dagger-thrust 
of ingratitude." 

Just then a clear voice, in undertone, sounded out from the 
dining-room as the cheerful daughter sang: 

Must Jesus bear the cross alone, 

And all the world go free? 
No, there's a cross for every one. 

And there's a cross for me. 



'^Yes, yes," the old man said ; '^there's a cross for me/*' 

In the corner under a bookshelf was a box with a hinged 
top, and upon this the old man fastened his eyes. That 
box contained his sermons, but for two years it had not been 
opened. He had no use for them now. He gazed steadily 
for a few moments, and then said : 

^'There's the old box of sermons ! What a record of the 
history of a human mind and heart ! The mind was small, 
maybe, Init the heart — l)less God I — was large. The heart- 
beats that are in those sermons will never be counted in this 
world. My hope, my love, my warmest aspirations toward 
God were all poured out in those sermons. It was honest 
labor. However faulty and imperfect my life, I w^as pure and 
honest when I wrote those sermons. They may be nothing 
but ashes now for others, but once they contained all the 
fire of ni}^ being. Some of them were born in joy, some in 
agony. Some hung struggling on my pen, some flowed like 
a swelling stream of fire. Some of them flamed in the pulpit, 
some of them were dead and cold and languishing. But there 
they are — fifteen hundred weeks of my life packed away in 
a box. Ma3'be it would be good to bury them. I think I 
could preach their funeral. Soul-thrilling memories, let them 
rest! 

"The village church bell is ringing in my ear. I can see 
the people crossing the green. I am once more in the old 
pulpit. There before me are the forms I love. A soft har- 
monious song fills the air, and I climb up on it as on a ladder 
to talk with God, while they sing. Then the reading and 
jDrayer, and the H0I3' Spirit comes down upon us all. I am 



OLD PEEACHER'S SOLILOQUY 519 

living it all over again. I see Brother Bray ton sitting there 
on the corner of the first bench, weeping, and dear old Sister 
Dunn — her eyes float around in a sea of delight." 

The old man had arisen to his feet, half staggering. Eub- 
bing his hands across his eyes, he continued : 

"Well, maybe this is age and weakness, and reason may be 
going; but these thoughts are worth to me all the toil and 
pain I have ever endured. I know I am poor, but I have bread 
to eat that ye know not of. Memories of those days surge 
through my brain, and I can live them over, if it is only in 
thought. I am happy that I can think of the souls born to 
God, of all the churches, of the happy homes once open to me, 
of the daily greetings with pilgrims who were on the journey 
home. Yes, I can hold again, if only in memory, the hand of 
the dying." He rested one hand in the other, and stopped as 
if to gather a thought. But the thought had come. "I 
wonder, wife, who will hold our hands when we are dying, 
now that we are old and forsaken by the friends of other 
and better days ?" 

His wife looked up, her eyes red with weeping. "Ah, 
dear," she said, "there is no good fruit to come of this. 
Let us cast ourselves again upon the good mercy of God. It 
is not far away to the grave. After we have made the little 
journey, all the problems will be solved and the enigmas made 
plain. The righteous ivill not he forsaken. This is the sure 
word of Him who never forgets His people's labor of love, and 
I have a faith which says that some heart and hand will yet 
open to us to supply our need." 

At the table, after the scanty supper, the old man recited a 
psalm, and the little family bowed their heads in prayer. 
That night, after retiring, when his head was pillowed for 
sleep, a sweet peace came down upon him, and the kind 
Master gave him refreshing rest. But when the morning 
came, and the breakfast table ofl^ered so little to tempt a weak 
appetite, he found that the harassing problem was still there 
— whence is my bread to come? Nor was it ever finally 
removed till life's sun paled away and set forever. Then the 
old man had bi'ead and to spare, for he sat daily at the Mas- 
ter's table, in a land of plenty — the only land where problems 
never come to i)rea(;hers. 

Beaufort, S. C. C. C. Bkown. 



520 THE RETIRED MINISTER 

THE REV. NOWKNOWSBETTER TO HIS WIFE 
(Confidential letter.) 
Deak Lizzie: 

Have you read the poem, "If I Should Die To-night"? 
AVell, don't. It is not very cheerful, and it has almost used 
me up. I read it last night and had a bad dream : I was dead, 
you a widow, and the children, orphans ; and it made my bones 
rattle when I realized what a hard proposition you must face. 

It was hard enough when we w^ere together and had $1,200 
a year and a parsonage ; but had it not been for your skill and 
economy the $1,200 never would have provided for our large 
family; for it was hard to live on $100 a month when the 
people expected us to live at the rate of $250 a month, and 
complained if our children did not look as well as the children 
of Jones, who draws $500 a month. How did you ever do it? 
We might have laid up something; but receiving $1,200 a 
year, if we had lived on $1,000 a year we would have been sent 
to an $800 charge, as was Foster, because "not stylish enough 
for such a high-toned charge." Besides the old Church is 
doing better by its claimants, and I thought that before the 
time came for me to retire there would be funds. 

But as I think of it now, I never did much to help the Cause. 
I was too busy looking after the heathen and the schools. I 
never put myself out to raise the Jubilee Gift, and had an 
idea that some day a good-natured layman would plank down 
Five Million Dollars and do the work. My stewards placed 
the apportionment in the budget, so that I was not bothered 
w^ith pro-rating. 

But now, alas ! my widow is a Claimant and my orphan 
children dependent, and I have defaulted duty and opportu- 
nity! Your hands are empty. To get a stamp to send the 
catalogue of your poverty to the Conference stewards you must 
rob Margaret's bank of her pennies. 

AAliile awaiting my turn to interview St. Peter I have been 
trying to recall how our widows fared last year. It was shock- 
ing ! They received only an average of $83.25 each. Why 
did we transfer from the old Conference, for there the widows 
received an average of $118.49; $35.24 more! I never knew 
that a dollar looked so big. It will look like a cart wheel to 
you before the year closes, and the fault is mine and that of 
the other preachers. There is absolutely no call for your pres- 



REV. NOWKNOWSBETTER TO HIS WIFE 521 

ent need. Laymen always responded to everything we asked 
for the old preachers. But we have held telescopes to onr eyes 
to spy out new lands and create new sunrises for distant 
people, and have forgotten that our own old preachers and 
widows here at home are sitting in the evening shadows of 
neglect and poverty. 

It looks as though hard times were ahead of you, my Dear, 
and I cannot help you. No, worse than that, I might have 
helped you had I had the true perspective. There are claims 
and claims, and there are causes and causes, but the Out- 
standing Claim and the Cause of all Causes is that the 
Veteran and the Widow should be provided for. Could my 
brother Ministers see this as I now see it, they would become 
deaf and blind and dumb to every other cause until their 
aged brethren have been provided for, and the old age of their 
loved ones. Laymen listening to the call of to-morrow have 
laid up for themselves treasures on earth, but the Preacher, 
who inspired them, has lamentably failed to do so. 

You cannot imagine how I feel ! I have troubles of my own. 
I tried to enter, but Peter stopped me and said, "You belong 
to that Conference which paid the old Ministers $160 and the 
widows $83.27 and you were deaf and blind and dumb to their 
needs. Young man, it's a good thing that Paul isn't on duty, 
or you'd never get in. For Paul is notional on this subject 
and declares that a man %ho careth not for his own has 
denied the faith and is worse than an infidel.' You know 
just where Paul would send you. Surely the Lord knew what 
He was about when He put me on guard. I denied Him, and 
swore, and am still a little rooster-shy, so I'm not inclined to 
be too inquisitive; but it strikes me that a man wlio is as 
foolish as you are and didn't have sense enough to convert the 
loving loyalty of the laymen into the coin of the realm for 
your widow and children, is too big a fool to make much dif- 
ference which way he goes. You can take the elevator or 
shoot the chutes. It makes no difference which; but don't 
touch those halos. They are all men's size." 

I am not sure which route I took, but the trip ended with 
a thump, and, thank the Lord ! I'm awake and my wife is not 
a widow, and my children are not orphans. But henceforth, 
'^first things first." I'll be home soon, and, first of all, we'll 
raise $1,000 for the permanent endowment fund. Then we 



522 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

will see Deacon Thompson and have him fulfill his promise to 
bequeath $10,000 to the Preachers' Aid Society. And then 
there is dear old Sister Green, worrying about that $5,000 her 
sister left her. I will see that she puts it into a Life Annuity 
Bond of the Board of Conference Claimants, which will give 
her an income of $30 a month as regularly as a government 
pension, so that she will be free to do what she so much loves 
to do, contribute liberally to missions and other benevolences. 

Good-bye for to-day. I'll be home to-morrow and get busy. 
I know I'll have a job, *^ Keeping up with Lizzie." I'm glad 
I'm not dead. No obituary in mine. No Abner epitaph, 
"Abner died as a fool dieth," on my headstone. I'm glad 
3'ou're not a widow (though you always did look well in 
black.) I'm glad the kiddies are not "the poor orphan chil- 
dren of a ^lethodist preacher," and heirs of Sammy and Susie 
Jones's cast-offs. 

Lovingly yours, 

John Alden" Nowknowsbetter. 

(One John who has learned to "speak for himself.") 



METHODISTS SEEK $10,000,000 MINISTERS^ 

PENSIONS 

Campaign Extending Theough Yeah Will Be One of 
Most RE^ki ark able Ever L^ndertaken by the De- 
nomination — Plea Based on Business Principles. 

By J. R. HiLDEBRAND 

In Washington this week will be launched one of the most re- 
markable campaigns ever undertaken by a religious denomina- 
tion, 

Methodists intend to inake a campaign to raise $10,000,000 
within a year as a ministers' retirement fund. 

Following the examples of great corporations, and giving an 
object lesson to Uncle Sam, who now makes no provision for his 
aged employees, this Church body hopes to raise a Permanent 
Fund for pensioning every retired minister, every minister's 
widow and ministers' dependent children. 

Heading this unique example of religious efficiency is the Rev. 
Dr. Hingeley, of Chicago, who outlined the plans. 

Ten million dollars for a ministers' retirement fund ! 
Startling, perhaps, but here is the real surprise of this 
campaign. This money is to be raised without a single 



MINISTERS' PENSIONS 523 

"hard-luck" tale, without a tear-compelling story, with no 
vivid pictures of ministerial derelicts, suffering wido^vs or 
penniless orphans. And nary an "over the hill to the poor- 
house" touch. 

The campaign for that fund is to be launched in Washing- 
ton this week, wliere Government clerks are fighting for civil 
pensions, and where school teachers are pleading for a retire- 
ment fund. 

Clergymen and prominent laymen of the Methodist Church 
will go about this great undertaking on business principles. 
They will base their appeal on good business arguments and 
pleas for higher efficiency. They hope to avoid any "sob" 
efforts and to avert any misguided pathos. 

By way of emphasizing this point they have included on 
their program pension experts of several great corporations, 
for example, tiie Pennsylvania Railroad Company and the 
Youngstown (Ohio) Steel Company; and before the as- 
sembled Bishops, leading clergymen and noted laymen of the 
Methodist Church, leaders of the ministers' retirement move- 
ment will urge the application of sound business principles. 

Harrov^ing Tales Obsolete 

Talk for a few minutes to the leader of this great move- 
ment, the Rev. Dr. Joseph B. Hingeley, secretary of the 
Board of Conference Claimants, and you will realize why this 
is to be no campaign of perfervid and lachrymal oratory. Dr. 
Hingeley possesses the personality, the forceful bearing, the 
concise speech, the penetrating glance of the successful busi- 
ness man. 

"The day of harrowing tales of superannuated ministers 
has passed for our denomination," he said. "In 1908, in 
Baltimore a system of pensions was worked out. It now 
remains for us to secure the money to insure the fulfillment 
of the pledges under that system. 

"And we consider those pledges as binding as those made 
to an active minister or an active Bishop. It is as much a 
congregation's business to pay its retired clergyman as it is 
to ])ay the salary .of its pastor. 

"Before 11)08 each Conference was the scene of sad stories 
about clergymen, tbeir widows and their children. These 
men were entitled to pensions, but were merely tendered 



524 THE EETIRED MINISTER 

^help/ The man who told the most pitiful story would get 
the most ^help/ " 

Average Salaries Basis 

Under the present arrangement clergymen who have served 
thirty-five years are entitled to a pension of half the average 
annual salary paid by their Conference. In the Baltimore 
Conference the average salary paid Methodist ministers is 
$1,050. Therefore, a clergyman retiring in this territory 
receives $525. Ministers having served less than thirty- five 
years are allowed $15 annually for each year's service. 

In the Northern Minnesota Conference, the average is 
$1,400. It is believed this arrangement is equitable because 
it takes into consideration the cost of living in the locality 
where the minister is retired. Widows of clergymen are 
paid one half of the ratio, and each child under sixteen years 
receives one fifth of his father's claim. 

In special cases the Conference has a right to increase these 
pensions to meet special needs. If a clergyman is crippled 
after only a few years' service his pension would not be ade- 
quate for his support. 

At present the full pensions due under this arrangement 
cannot always be paid for lack of funds. Last year $1,100,000 
was paid out, although $1,600,000 was needed to meet all 
obligations. A $10,000,000 fund, in addition to present re- 
sources, will afford interest sufficient to meet this obligation 
in full. 

During 1915, Methodists in all parts of the land will give 
their united efforts to raise this sum. The undertaking is 
heavy, but leaders of the movement express confidence in the 
outcome. — Tlie Washington Times. 



"SUPERANNUATED" 

"No, I don't believe in these Vorn-out preachers' yarns,' 
such as the preacher sprung on us this morning. A superan- 
nuated preacher ought to be like a superannuated business 
man — able to take care of himself." 

"How about your old friend Jones?" mildly asked his 
wife. "He is a superannuated business man and he's in the 
poorhouse." 



"SUPEEANNUATED" 525 

"Humph ! Lack of business sagacity." 

"But," continued the wife, "suppose a hard-working 
preacher receives, while in his strength of body and mind, 
only enough to keep soul and body together. What is he to 
do when he is old ?" 

"Why — eh? Say, wife, I\e got to go north on business 
to-morrow. Want to go along? You will have to run your 
own chances, for I do not know what sort of a place it is." 

"It may be that jumping-off place to the poorhouse," sug- 
gested his wife. 

At six o^clock the next evening they found themselves in a 
scrubby town. 

"There is no hotel here !" exclaimed the wife. But after 
looking around they directed their steps to the most neatly 
kept house in town where a feeble, kindly-faced old lady an- 
swered their knock. 

"Good woman," said the business man, "we are obliged to 
remain in town over night. Can you give us lodging? We 
will pay you well for your trouble." 

"If you can put up with what we have we will be glad to 
keep you. Shall we not, husband?" 

"Certainly," came a cheery voice from within. ^'We turn 
no stranger from our door." 

For supper they had the shredded leg of a chicken made 
into a delicious gravy, faultlessly cooked potato, the pro- 
verbial pinch of salt, and water. A repetition of their supper 
constituted their breakfast. 

"We are poor," explained the kindly-faced woman, "and 
are obliged to make a chicken go a long way," she said, 
laughing. "Husband is feeble, and I am not much better; 
but so far the good Lord has provided for all of our neces- 
sities." 

"Amen !" responded the gray-haired man at the table. 

"But where did you sleep last night?" asked the business 
man's wife. 

"We have but one bed," answered the gray-haired man. 
"Wife and I took to our old rocking-chairs, and passed a very 
comfortable night of it. You see, we have plenty of wood." 

"And who are you?" asked the business man, while he 
tried to find something in his eye which very much troubled 
him. 



526 THE RETIEED MINISTER 



'My name is 



'What ! Not my father's old pastor ?" exclaimed the 
business man's wife. 

"The same." 

"And you baptized me ?" 

"Yes." 

"And preached my mother's and father's funeral ser- 
mons ?" 

"Husband !" 

But the business man did not answer. He was having 
trouble now with both eyes. He had out his pocketbook, and, 
counting out a generous sum of money, handed it over to the 
superannuated minister and his wife. 

Then the old pastor took the blessed Book and with a 
quavering voice read a joyous psalm of thanksgiving: 

"Bless the Lord, O my soul; 
And all that is within me, bless his holy name. 
Bless the Lord, O my soul, 
And forget not all his benefits." 

The next Sunday the business man united with his home 
church, and ever after saw to it that the superannuated 
preacliors' apportionment was pressed down and running 
over. — Michigan Christian Advocate. 



OUR VETERANS 
The Rev. S. J. Greenfield, D.D. 

Yes, that is what they are, "Our Veterans." Do you ask 
why we call them "Our Veterans"? Well, I will tell you. 
Years ago they gave themselves to us, and we accepted the 
gift and have made use of it. Long ago, when in the vigor 
of early manhood, when ambition fired the blood, when many 
alluring voices called to them from different directions, when 
professional, commercial and industrial careers opened be- 
fore them, they turned away from them and offered them- 
selves to us for the work "of God, and the Church and the 
ministry." From that moment to this they have been ours. 
They have been our "servants for Christ's sake," bearing the 
burdens, facing the difficulties, and solving the problems that 
fall to the lot of a Methodist pastor. They have done our 
bidding, gone wherever sent, taught the flock "publicly and 



OITE A^ETERANS 527 

from house to house'' ; they have led many of us and our sons 
and daughters into the fold of Christ, and have done it 
all without murmuring; yes, done it till the yet willing soul 
found itself imprisoned in a feeble body. Surely they are 
ours. 

Growj^ Old in Service 

They are our ''Veteraiis/' too, for they have "grown old 
in the service and are entitled to consideration and allowance 
on account of it." Such is the dictionary definition of a 
"Veteran," and the Methodist Church cannot afford to have 
a definition that means less. They have grown old in the 
service, so old that they are practically unfitted for any other 
work by which to earn a living. If any Veterans in the world 
were ever entitled "to consideration and allowance" from those 
they had faithfully served, surely these must be. Warriors 
are they in the age-long struggle between right and wrong; 
laborers in the Lord's harvest field gathering precious sheaves 
into His garner; wise builders patiently adding stone by 
stone to characters that shall witness through all eternity 
to their fidelity to their sacred trust. Say you not, then. 
Brother, that they are worthy of "consideration and allow- 
ance" ? 

A Soulless Corpoeation 

When at a summer resort there was pointed out to me a 
cozy little cottage overlooking the far-famed beauties of the 
majestrc St. Lawrence. My companion told me that this 
was the summer home of one who had grown old in the 
service of a great railroad. When failing sight unfitted him 
to hold safely any longer the throttle of the mighty locomo- 
tive, the company retired him on a pension of fifty dollars 
a month for life, the company stating that this pension was 
a recognition of "long and faithful service." There instantly 
ran through my mind the recollection of not a few members 
of the Methodist ministry who had, under all circumstances, 
faithfully guided onward the churches committed to their 
care till physical infirmity compelled retirement, but who 
have never received from the great Church they served fifty 
dollars a month; in some cases not fifty dollars a year as a 
recognition of "long and faithful service." Yet that was a 
"soulless" corporation and we are a Christian Church. 

Utica, N. Y. S. J. Greenfield. 



528 THE EETIRED MINISTER 

THE LIGHT BRIGADE 
When an effort was made in London to raise a fund for 
the survivors of the heroic charge at Balaklava only about 
a hundred dollars was collected. The veterans called on 
Tennyson, and he aroused the country to action with his pen. 
But much of the money raised went to other purposes — to 
Ireland, to the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. 
The incident called forth the following lines from Kipling: 

THE LAST OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE 
RuDYARD Kipling 

There were thirty million English that talked of England's Might: 
There were twenty broken troopers that lacked a bed for the 

night: 
They had neither food nor money, they had neither work nor 

trade, 
They were only shiftless soldiers, the last of the Light Brigade. 

They felt that Life was fleeting; they knew that Art was long, 
That though they were dying of famine they lived in deathless 

song; 
They asked for a little money to keep the wolf from the door, 
And the thirty million English sent twenty pounds and four. 

They laid their heads together, that were scarred and lined with 

gray — 
Keen were the Russian sabers, but want was keener than they — 
And the old troop sergeant muttered: "Let's go to the man who 

writes 
The things on Balaklava the kiddies at school recites." 

They went without band or colors, a regiment ten file strong, 
To look for the Master Singer, who had crowned them all in his 

song; 
And waiting his servant's order, by the garden gate they stayed, 
A desolate little cluster, the last of the Light Brigade. 

They strove to stand to attention, to straighten the toil-worn 

back; 
They drilled on empty stomachs, the loose knit files fell slack. 
With stooping of weary shoulders, in garments tattered and 

frayed. 
They shambled into his presence, the last of the Light Brigade. 

The old troop sergeant was spokesman, and "Beggin' your par- 
don," he said, 

"You wrote o' the Light Brigade, sir. Here's all that isn't dead. 

And it's all come true what you wrote, sir, regardin' the Mouth 
0' Hell, 

For we're all of us nigh the work-house, an' we thought we'd call 
an' tell. 



STOEY AND SONG 529 

"No, thank you, we don't want alms, sir, but couldn't you take an' 

write 
A sort o' 'to-be-continued,' and 'see-next-page' o' the fight? 
We think that some one has blundered, an' couldn't you tell 'em 

how? 
You wrote we was heroes once, sir — please write we are starving 

now." 

The poor little army departed, limping and lean and forlorn. 
And the heart of the Master Singer grew hot with the scorn of 

scorn. 
And he wrote for them wondrous verses that swept the land like 

flame. 
Till the fatted souls of the English were scourged with the thing 

called shame. 

They sent a check to the felon that sprang from an Irish bog. 
They healed the spavined cab horse, they housed the homeless 

dog; 
And they sent (you may call me a liar) when rebel and beast 

were paid, 
A check for enough to live on to the last of the Light Brigade. 

O thirty million English, that babble of England's Might, 
Behold there are twenty heroes, who lack their food to-night; 
Our children's children are lisping to honor the charge they made. 
But we leave to the streets and work-house the last of the Light 
Brigade. 



WHOFOEGETS? 

A ragged, poor and friendless Chicago boy was asked, "Do 
you not think that if there were a God he would tell somebody 
to give you clothes and other things that you need ?" 

"He does tell somebody/' replied the boy, "but somebody 
forgets.'^ 

All around us are God's children, in need of a kind word of 
sympathy, in want of temporary assistance. But we forget. 

And how about the faithful veterans of the ministry who 
have literally worn themselves out in the service of Christ 
and the Church ; who are unable to serve longer, whose salaries 
are cut off and who are in need ? 

How about the widows and little orphan children who have 
shared the privations of these self-denying ministers? 

"Doth God care for oxen ?" Then he cannot forget his saints. 

But somebody forgets. Is your memory good? 

Have you forgotten ? 



530 THE RETIRED MINISTER 

VETERANS ! 
Rev. Alfred J. Hough 
[Read before the Veterans of Vermont Annual Conference.] 

"Veterans!" That's a name of honor, borne by men who wrought 

and taught 
That their fellows might be lifted to high planes of life and 

thought. 
Not that age has lowered a pulse-beat, dimmed one radiant ideal, 
Clouded any goal before them, or toned down their ardent zeal; 
But the years of service rendered in the Master's holy cause 
Give them right to relaxation and the blessing of a pause! 
Looking backward, forward, standing on the heights, serene and 

fair. 
Won by life-long aspiration and the upward life of prayer. 
While the memories sweet and tender from the far-off years arise, 
Filling with unclouded splendor all the sweep of evening skies. 

How they sweetened noisome places, succored souls when tempest- 
tossed; 

How they lightened shadowed faces, soothed the sorrowing, saved 
the lost! 

How they laid the sure foundations, gardens out of deserts made, 

Spoke the truth without evasion, opened heaven as they prayed. 

When the world's long Roll of Honor angel hands at last unroll. 

Then these ministers of Jesus will stand highest on the scroll. 

Veterans, ere you leave us, swinging in bright chariots through 
the air. 

Give us back the old-time singing, give us back the power of 
prayer! 

Give us, ere you go, the secret of that preaching art of yours. 

Which sent home the Gospel message, saving sinners by the 
scores! 

If the church regains her prestige in the fight with sin, 'tis plain 
She must bugle-call her Veterans to the firing-line again! 
Talk of empty churches, drifting, why, a flock of sheep will go 
Over fences to the neighbors when their feed is running low! 
beloved, you have spoken words that to the people showed 
Where the heavenly bread was broken, where the living waters 

flowed. 
How a soul by sin defeated could find mercy's open door, 
Hear the Master's words repeated: "Go thy way, and sin no 

more!" 
These the men that went forth weeping, sowing fields with pre- 
cious grain 
For the harvests we are reaping — shall we see their like again? 

From the world your names may perish, for the world forgets its 

best. 
But your memories souls will cherish that you guided home to 

rest. 



STOEY AND SOiVG 531 

Some day — may that day come swiftly! — this great Church of 

ours will heed, 
And munificeiitly answer, every veteran's sigh of need! 
How her spires rise up, unnumbered, to the sun, in every State, 
But she seems to have forgotten those who made her strong and 

great! 
It may be our risen Master will rare gifts of grace withhold 
Till the Church to her old pastors pays her debt of love in gold — • 
Till their widows and their orphans stand as mendicants no more, 
Heeded not, while wealth and plenty walk through every church's 

door. 

Listen! for these words of chiding, from the pen God WTote with, 

fell: 
"He, not for his house providing, is far worse than infidel!" 
And we read that when God's storehouse holds the tithes that are 

its due, 
He will open heaven's windows and let boundless blessings 

through. 
When the Church pays her long owing for divinest ministers. 
There will be a sound of going in those blessed mulberry trees; 
On the floor of every Conference may the Veterans' pleadings win; 
For the Lord, with all His loving, hates a stingy Church like sin. 
But just loves to pour out blessings on the church that loves to 

give 
Of its bounty, countless treasure that the Veterans may live. 



THE DIFFERENT WAYS WE TREAT THEM 
Mildred Welch 

I want to tell you about two soldiers, one, a gray-haired 
Confederate veteran, the other a young soldier of the 
Southern Presbyterian Church. The veteran is growing old 
and feeble and it will not be long till he joins the men in 
gray who have "crossed over the river and rest in the shade 
of the trees"; the other soldier, the young Minister, has 
already answered the roll-call in the happy land and laid 
down his armor in the prime of his manhood. 

They call the Confederate soldier a hero where he lives, 
and when a stranger comes to town he is told this story. The 
veteran was a young fellow wlien lie wont into the war and 
carried the colors of his regiment with pride and joy beating 
high in his heart. One day in the heat of a fierce battle his 
commander, General Forrest, not wisliing to expose liis men 
unnecessarily, said to liim: "Give me the colors. I Avant to 
plant them there," pointing to the most dangerous position 



532 THE EETIKED MINISTER 

on the field. The young color-bearer drew himself up to full 
height and said : "I will not give you the colors, but I will 
tale them anywhere you say." 

"Plant them on the enemy's breastworks V answered the 
general, and the color-bearer planted them where shot and 
shell were raining fire, and the blue and the gray falling side 
by side. AVhen the men in gray saw their colors waving 
there they charged and in one impetuous rush carried the 
breastworks. And that is why we call him a hero ! He does 
not need our money, and so in place of money we give him 
love, honor and the brave man's place in our hearts. 

And the other, the young soldier of Jesus Christ! He 
was a poor boy, used to hard work, sorrow and trouble, 
without the good play-times of other boys. One day he heard 
the call of God for him to be a minister and he answered it. 
There were years of hard toil, struggling for an education, 
getting along with little money, shabby clothes and insuffi- 
cient food. Then came six years as a minister in the moun- 
tains. Not in one gallant charge did the young soldier fight 
his battle, but through hard years, going up and down the 
wild mountain caves, teaching little children, visiting the 
sick, comforting the dying. He had barely enough to live 
on and out of that little he gave to the wretched mountain 
people, while in all the commonplaces of daily life there 
shone the beautiful spirit of sacrifice. 

One day, the young minister's strength gave way and when 
he lay sick he had not money enough to pay his board. At 
last the Church for which he had suffered so much heard 
and sent help. But it came too late. A check for $40 was 
held before his eyes already growing dim. He smiled grate- 
fully, and said: "It will help," and almost at once answered 
the roll-call as a faithful soldier in the other world. 

It never would have happened if we had only known, would 
it? But let us see that it does not ever happen to any other 
soldier of the Cross. 

AGED MINISTERS IN THE GEEMAN STATE 

CHURCH 

The shamefully inadequate provision made for the sup- 
port of the aged ministers of the gospel in this country is in 
marked contrast with the superb provision made for them in 



STORY Al^D SONG 533 

Germany. The Christian Herald is authority for the state- 
ment that in Germany the young minister gets a minimum 
salary, usually of $500 and a parsonage. This salary is in- 
creased every few years until, at sixty-five, the minister, even 
if he has changed his parish, receives $2,500, the largest com- 
pensation permissible, the use of a parsonage and certain fees. 
At sixty-five the minister can withdraw on a pension if he 
shall so elect or, if the parish so desire ; or by consent he can 
continue five years longer. On retiring he receives a pension 
for the rest of his life of two thirds of his last and highest 
salary. On his death his widow receives an adequate pension 
for the remainder of her days, as also does each of her minor 
children. — The Neiu Orleans Picayune. 



THE CIRCUIT PREACHER 

George Alfred Town send 

His thin wife's cheek grows pinched and pale with anxiousness 

intense; 
He sees the brethren's prayerful eyes o'er all the Conference; 
He hears the bishop slowly call the long "appointment" rolls, 
Where in his vineyard God would place these gatherers of souls. 

Poor rugged heart, be still a pause, and you, worn wife, be meek! 
Two years of banishment they read far down the Chesapeake! 
"Cheer up, my girl! here Brother Riggs our circuit knows 'twill 

please : 
He raised three hundred dollars there, besides the marriage fees. 

"The schools are good, the brethren say, and our church holds the 

wheel : 
The Presbyterians lost their house; the Baptists lost their zeal. 
Oh, thy just will, our Lord, be done! though these eight seasons 

more 
We see our ague-crippled boys pine on the Eastern shore. 

"Yea! some must serve on God's frontiers, and I shall fail perforce 
To sow upon some better ground my most select discourse: 
"Graj' am I, brethren, in the work, though tough to bear my part. 
It is these drooping little ones that sometimes wring my heart. 

"These hairs were brown when, full of hope, ent'ring these holy 

lists. 
Proud of my order as a knight, — the shouting Methodists, 
My nag was gray, my gig was new — fast went the sandy miles; 
The eldest trustee gave me praise, the fairest sisters smiles. 



534 THE EETTKED MTXISTEl^ 

"All winter long I rode the snows, rejoicing on my way; 
At midnight our revival hymns rolled o'er the sobbing bay; 
But larger, tenderer charities such vain debates supplant, 
When the dear wife, saved by my zeal, loved the Itinerant. 

"No cooing dove, of storms afeared, she shared my life's distress — 

A singing Miriam, alway in God's Poor wilderness. 

The wretched at her footstep smiled, the frivolous were still: 

A bright path marked her pilgrimage, from Blackbird to Snowhill. 

"A new face in the parsonage, at church a double pride! — 
Like the Madonna and her babe they filled the "Amen side": 
Crouched at my feet in the old gig, my boy, so fair and frank, 
Naswongo's darkest marches cheered, and sluices of Choptank, 

"My cloth drew close; too fruitful love my fruitless life outran: 
The townfolk marveled, when we moved, at such a caravan! 
I wonder not my lads grew wild, when, bright, without the door 
Spread the ripe, luring, wanton world — and we, within, so poor! 

"For, down the silent cypress aisles came shapes even me to scout. 
Mocking the lean flanks of my mare, my boy's patched round- 
about, 
And saying 'Have these starveling boors, thy congregation, souls, 
That on their dull heads Heaven and thou pour forth such living 
coals-?' 

"Well! well! my brethren, it is true we should not preach for 

pelf; 
(I would my sermon on Saint Paul the bishop heard himself!) 
But this crushed wife — these boys — these hairs! they cut me to 

the core; — 
Is it not hard, year after year, to ride the Eastern Shore? 

"Next year? Yes, yes, I thank you much! Then my reward may 

fall! 
(That is a downright fair discourse on Patmos and Saint Paul!) 
So, Brother Riggs, once more my voice shall ring in the old lists. 
Cheer up, sick heart, who would not die among these Methodists?" 



QUITTIXG TOO SOON 

The Conferences have had the nsual number of men step- 
ping out of the active work of the ministry into the more 
quiet and restful way of the superannuate. There is nearly 
always some touch of pathos in this process, and we believe 
that not many Methodist ministers ask for a superannuated 
relation without misgiving, wrenching of heart, or tears. 



QUITTING TOO SOON^ 535 

But this decision and this process is sometimes worse than 
pathetic; it is occasionally a tragedy — because it has been 
reached altogether too early in life. If some change could 
be made in conditions or in the trend of things that would 
do away with the seeming necessity for early superannuation 
two excellent things would result — the problem of ministerial 
suj)ply would be much easier of solution, and much heart- 
break, bitterness, and real suffering would be spared the 
preacher, and in some cases the people as well. 

The minister who is retiring at fifty-five, still active and 
vigorous, may seek to justify himself on the plea that the 
foolish craze of the people for young men has driven hirn to 
the wall; but he ought in all fairness to honestly question 
himself as to whether that way of putting the matter actually 
covers the whole situation. It may be true that Church mem- 
bers and official boards are sometimes foolishly fond of 
preachers under thirty, but it is worth a question whether 
their fancy is really for men young in years or only for those 
young in spirit. It is probably true that a minister who is 
youthful in feelings and outlook and yet has the advantage 
of years behind him, has a much better chance of real appre- 
ciation than the one who is both young and inexperienced. 

There are two or three things that the minister who has 
reached middle life should set himself steadfastly to do. He 
should determine not to lose his grip on himself. If a man 
keeps fast hold of his courage, his enthusiasm, his buoyancy 
of spirit, and does not allow his adversities, or hardships, or 
disappointments to sour or embitter him, he has made one 
of the first and most necessary preparations for the coming 
on of the years. 

Men sometimes foolishly think that as the hair grows gray 
and the years crowd on into the fifties it is a call to slacken 
effort. In most cases it is no such thing. There is no reason 
why any ordinary man should not grow and develop and 
advance in knowledge, ability, and usefulness in the fifties 
or sixties — or even the seventies, for that matter — as he did 
in tlie thirties or forties; no reason in the world, save as he 
allows carelessness and inertness and slothfulness to settle 
down upon him. 

The great necessity for the middle-aged man is that he 
hold on to his faith and optimism and hopefulness. The 



536 THE RETIKED MINISTER 

man who believes in the future really never grows old; the 
old man is the one who believes in the past. The preacher 
who is ready to lead his people on into the new and better 
days that are always ahead will very seldom be thrust from 
his place; but the one who talks overmuch about the better 
days that are gone, and tries to lead back to them, very often 
will be. The old men who "dream dreams" are on an 
equality with the young men who "see visions." 

It is really a fine thing to see middle-aged men, alert and 
resourceful and buoyant and keeping abreast of things and 
leading in the forward movements of life; and it is an espe- 
cially pleasing thing when these men are in the ministry of 
the Christian Church. — The Christian Guardian. 






WANTED: A MINISTER'S WIFE 

Wanted, a perfect lady, 

Delicate, gentle, refined, 
With every beauty of person. 

And every endowment of mind: 
Fitted by early culture 

To move in fashionable life — 
Please note our advertisement: 

"Wanted, a Minister's Wife!" 

Wanted, a thoroughbred worker. 

Who well to her household looks; 
(Shall we see our money wasted 

By extravagant Irish cooks?) 
Who cuts the daily expenses 

With economy sharp as a knife, 
And washes and scrubs in the kitchen: 

"Wanted, a Minister's Wife!" 

A "very domestic person," 

To "callers" she must never be "out," 
It has such a bad appearance 

For her to be gadding about; 
Except to visit a parish 

Every long day of her life. 
And attend all the funerals and weddings: 

"Wanted, a Minister's Wife!" 

To conduct the "Ladies' Prayer Meeting," 
The Aid's "sewing-circle" attend; 

And when we "work for the soldiers," 
Her ready assistance to lend. 



STORY AND SONG 537 

To clothe the destitute children 

Where sorrow and want are rife, 
And look up new Sunday school scholars: 

"Wanted, a Minister's Wife!" 

With courtesy entertain strangers, 

Traveling agents and such; 
Of this kind of stray "angels' visits," 

The stewards have had far too much. 
These prove so perfect a nuisance 

That they hope these plagues of their life 
Can soon be sent to the parson's: 

"Wanted, a Minister's Wife!" 

A perfect pattern of prudence. 

Than all others spending much less, 
But never disgracing the parish 

By looking too shabby in dress; 
And playing the organ on Sunday 

Would aid in our laudable strife 
To save the society's money: 

"Wanted, a Minister's Wife!" 

And when we have found such a person, 

We hope that by working the two, 
We'll pay our old debt and build newly. 

And then do you know what we'll do? 
For both will be worn out and weary, 

And needing new change in their life: 
We'll advertise, "Wanted — A youngish 

New Minister and with a New Wife!" 



A STRONG CHURCH 
W. B. Matteson 

You are a "strong" church — a "leading church" in your 
Conference. Your pastor is a conspicuous, influential man. 
You are proud of him — of the position you have given him. 
You pay him a "good" salary. He lives in a modest house 
in a respectable neighborhood. He and his family are prop- 
erly clothed (you would very much resent him in a shiny 
coat). He has a good library to which he is constantly add- 
ing. He can occasionally "travel." He gives you back a 
good part of his salary — how large a part you do not realize, 
for he is always giving, here, there, everywhere. He never 
escapes any appeal — you sometimes do. He may be saving 
up a little money — though the chances are that he isn't; 
almost certainly he isn't, if he has children to educate. He 



538 THE EETIEED MIOTSTER 

is possibly carryings with much difficulty, a little life insur- 
ance. 

You lo^e him. If he fell ill — you would be kind. If he 
died, you would for a while anyway, until you forgot, care 
for his widow and children. If he were to grow old and 
pass the time of real usefulness while still your pastor you 
might, if he had ])een with you for a long time, retire him 
with a modest pension. If he had only been with you a few 
years — but then 3^ou never would have been so foolish as to 
call an old man wlio might obviously in a few years become 
a charge upon you ! In a word, you are a kind, respecta])le 
people wlio would wish to do what was right toward your 
pastor in any emergency, and would do it so far as you saw 
and understood. 

But, because you are a strong church, you are an excep- 
tional church. Do you realize that? Do you not know that 
where there is one church willing and able to do so much as 
you, there are at least ten which however willing they might 
be could not do as much or anything like enough? 

Do you not know that where there is one pastor as com- 
fortable as yours, there are ten whose life is a bitter struggle 
to secure even the most common necessities of life — whose 
clothes are perpetually shiny — to whom a new book is a great 
rarity, for whom, in case of prolonged illness or death, their 
churches could make no adequate 23rovision ? 

Because you are a 'rich church and can take good care of 
your pastor, is it right that you should forget the others? 
Have you no obligation to the Church and to the ministry 
beyond your own church and your own pastor? How large 
a part of your strength came to you from small churches 
whose pastors lived on miserably inadequate salaries? 

It is the astonishing peculiarity of the work for niinisterial 
relief that it is precisely the strong, rich churches which are 
most negligent. It is doubtless because they are farther from 
the need. The smaller churches, the little country churches 
know. They send in their contribution and "wish they could 
make it more"; but the contributions are necessarily small 
and the aggregate of them quite unequal to the need. But 
if we ask a churcli which gives $5,000 to benevolences to 
give this cause $500 it would be simply a fair proportion — 
a proportion which many moderate churches cheerfully give. 



STORY AND SO:^G 539 

The strong cliurch is the crux of this situation. Some of 
them are doing all that could be fairly asked — some are 
doing even more than they are asked. But for the most part 
the strong churches fail us. AVhen they begin to do — we do 
not say their '"proportional" ])art — but even a part of the 
part they ought in fairness to do, all will be well. 



HAS METHODISM ITS "FOIIGOTTER MAN^'? 

As we look over the Church we find one man who makes 
a very pathetic picture for all whose hearts are watered by 
the springs of tender feeling. Bathed in the twilight of 
age and poverty, he sits in the silent places. He had his day. 
He was once the bravest, blithest toiler in the field. He now 
can only pray and hope and hear the jocund note of his 
more active brother as he tells the tale of victories achieved. 
He is the worn-out preacher — more euphemistically called 
the "superannuate." 

Are we as a Church forgetting this man? 

"No," you say. "See how we remember him. ISTot an 
Annual Conference passes that he does not receive his little 
envelope containing a check, whose denomination has been 
carefully figured out by a body of wise men." 

Yet how small and inadequate is this stipend ! In many 
cases it is not sufficient to support him through more than 
a few months of the year. In many cases it is used to pay 
in part the expense of the preceding year. 

Yes, he is remembered by the Church in a way, and it is 
to its credit that it does remember him to this extent. We 
would not forget, too, that the General Conference adopted 
a plan for raising a fund of $5,000,000; that this plan is 
being pushed vigorously and wisely. 

Yet, when we consider the obligations of the Church to 
him, his actual needs, and what he really receives, would 
it be a mere figure of speech to call the superannuate "Meth- 
odism's Forgotten Man"? 
""^ For the reason that we have faith in God and in his people, 
we look for a day when the superannuate preacher of South- 
ern Methodism will receive from his Church that practical 
financial support which an old soldier receives from his gov- 
ernment, or which a worn-out employee receives from the 



540 THE EETIRED MINISTER 

secular institution. The time will come when we will be 
unwilling as a Church to use up the energies of our men, 
and, when we can no longer utilize them, to bestow merely 
our sympathy on them. As Christian men and women, we 
Avill be unwilling to bestow our gifts on the sturdy and active, 
and have no gift ready for the men who once bore the heat 
and burden of the day. — The Christian Advocate {Nashville) , 



LOVE AND PET ME NOW 
T. B. Larimoke, in The Christian Advocate (Nashville) 

Take my withered hand in yours, 

Children of my soul; 
Mother's heart is craving love, 

Mother's growing old. 
See the snows of many years 

Crown my furrowed brow. 
As I've loved and petted you. 

Love and pet me now. 

Lay your hand upon my head, 

Smooth my whitened hair; 
I've been growing old the wliile 

You've been growing fair. 
I have toiled and prayed for you — 

Ask not why or how. 
As I've loved and petted you, 

Love and pet me now. 

Take my withered hand in yours. 

Children of my heart. 
Mother's growing old; your love 

Makes life's sweetest part. 
Touch with love my faded cheeks, 

Kiss my anxious brow. 
As I've loved and petted you. 

Love and pet me now. 

Take my withered hands in yours, 

Hold them close and strong; 
Cheer me with a fond caress, 

'Twill not be for long. 
Youth immortal soon will crown 

With its wreath my brow. 
As I've loved and petted you, 

Love and pet me now. 



STORY AXD SO.Ya 5il 

Take my withered hand in yours, 

This your heart will prove; 
If you owe me anything, 

Pay the debt with love. 
Press me in your strong young arms, 

Breathe a loving vow. 
As I've loved and petted you, 

Love and pet me now. 



MAKING MONEY FOR GOD 

Alpheus Hardy, the princely benefactor of countless good 
causes, once told this thrilling experience : 

^'1 am not a college man, and it was the bitter disappoint- 
ment of my life that I could not go to college and become a 
minister. My health broke down, and, in spite of my deter- 
mined hope of being able to go on, the truth was forced on 
me that 1 could not. 

"To tell my disappointment is impossible. It seemed as 
if all my hope and purpose in life were defeated. *I cannot 
be God's minister,' was the sentence that kept rolling through 
my mind. 

"When that fact at last became certain to me, one morn- 
ing — alone in my room — my distress was so great that I 
threw myself flat on the floor, with the voiceless cry, ^0 God, 
I cannot be Thy minister !' Then there came to me as I 
lay, a vision, a new hope, a perception that I could serve God 
in business with the same devotion as in preaching, and that 
to make money for God might be my sacred calling. 

"The vision of this service and its nature as a sacred 
ministry was so clear and joyous that I rose to my feet, and 
with new hope in my heart exclaimed aloud, ^0 God, I can 
be Thy minister! I will go back to Boston. / will make 
money for God, and that shall he my ministry.' 

"From that time I have felt myself as much appointed and 
ordained to make money for God as if I had been permitted 
to carry out my own plan and had been ordained to preach 
the Gospel. I am God's man, and the ministry to which God 
called me is to make and administer money for Him, and I 
consider myself responsible to discharge this ministry and 
to give account of it to Him." 



542 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

THE OLD PACKING BOXES 

Song of the Itinerant's Wife 
By Mrs. E, M. McKibbin. 

How dear to my heart are the old packing boxes, 

Piled out of the way in the loft of the shed, 
Infested with spiders and 'broidered with cobwebs, 

They're patiently waiting high up over head. 
Serenely they wait for the verdict of Conference, 

Undisturbed by the fiat "Go forth" or "Go back," 
As the days hasten on for the annual flitting 

When the Methodist preacher is ordered to pack: 
The old wooden boxes, the dust-covered boxes, 

The iron-bound boxes the preacher must pack. 

How often when Conf'rence is over we hasten 

To pull down the boxes and brush off the dust. 
And take up the carpets and take down the curtains. 

And wrap up the dishes; for pack up we must. 
Ah, me! who can tell of the work and the worry. 

The din and confusion from morning till night. 
The rush and the whirl — till a well-ordered household 

Has lost its headquarters — demoralized quite: 
The old wooden boxes, the iron-bound boxes. 

The old packing boxes all ready for flight. 

'Tis easy to pack all the goods and the chattels, 

The old packing boxes are spacious and wide. 
We can carry the bird-cage, the cat, and the chickens; 

We can ship the old cow and the horses beside; 
But the friends we have known, and the hearts we have tested, 

The communion of souls that were kindred and dear. 
The trust and the love that consoled in affliction, 

The words and the smiles that encourage and cheer, 
, Are not packed in the boxes, the old wooden boxes, 

The iron-bound boxes, at the end of the year. 

These are folded away in the heart's inner recess. 

Like flowers that blossomed away from the light, 
Unforgotten they yield their perfume like a censer. 

These memory-blossoms, so precious, so bright. 
When the Bishop of souls makes our final appointment. 

And we make our last move from the charges of time. 
We shall welcome a crown and an entrance abundant 

To mansions of glory, eternal, sublime; 
Bid farewell to the boxes, the iron-bound boxes, 

That so often we packed after Conference time. 



STORY AND SONG 543 

AGED MINISTERS 

The need of relief for ministers of the gospel has impressed 
itself upon the conscience of Christian people. The difficulty 
does not lie so much in the illiberality of the members as in 
their uninformed understanding of the subject. 

Almost all the people respond to a special call for relief. 
A few words from the pastor of each congregation is enough, 
i^f only he overcomes his natural delicacy, which should not 
be as great as if he were asking for himself. For instance, a 
congregation in an Episcopal parish in Pittsburgh increased 
its offerings to the general Clergy Relief Fund from $200 to 
$2,000 simply because the rector took the trouble to discuss 
the matter candidly in a sermon whose telling point was the 
contrast between the comfortable condition of a retired army 
chaplain on $1,800 a year and the insupportable lot of an- 
other clergyman of the same Church who had toiled and 
starved on $600 a year, and now with his library sold, 
decrepit and infirm was facing the problem of existence. 

Many dioceses or Conferences have considerable funds to 
assist their own retired clergymen. Nevertheless this local 
arrangement works rather in the interests of the pastors of 
rich and influential congregations and against the ministers 
in the small parish or mission. Members of prosperous and 
wealthy congregations can hardly realize that there are many 
poor churches which can scarcely give the necessaries of 
life to their ministers, to say nothing of providing relief for 
their old age. 



A NICKEL FOR THE LORD 

He wore a rose on his coat, but when the plate was passed 
gave a nickel to the Lord. He had several bills in his pocket 
and silver change, but he hunted out this poor nickel and 
gave it to aid the Church militant in its fight against the 
world, the flesh and the devil. His silk hat was on the seat; 
his gloves and cane were beside it, and the nickel was on 
the plate, a whole nickel. 

He met a friend; the cash register recorded $1.35, and he 
handed the boy a dime. A nickel to the Lord and a dime to 
the waiter! He had his shoes polished and handed the Greek 



544 THE EETIRED MINISTER 

a dime without a murnmr. He had a shave and paid his 
check of fifteen cents and "tipped'' the barber a dime. He 
took a box of candies to his wife, tied with a dainty ribbon. 
He paid fifty cents for it, and gave a nickel to the Lord. 

Who is this Lord ? 

This nickel-giver worships Him as the Creator of the mii- 
verse, the One who put the stars in order and by whose im- 
mutable decree the heavens stand — and he dropped a nickel on 
the plate to support liis Churcli. The Lord being slow to anger 
and remembering his size did not slay this mean little fellow, 
but gave him liis daily bread. 

But tlie nickel was asliamed, if the man was not. It slunk 
from sight beneath the quarter given by a poor woman who 
washes for a living. 



THE SAINTS WHO FROM THEIR LABORS REST 

For all the saints who from their labors rest, 
Who Thee by faith before the world confessed, 
Thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest. 
Alleluia! 

Thou wast their rock, their fortress, and their might; 
Thou, Lord, their captain in the well-fought fight; 
Thou, in the darkness drear, their one true light 
Alleluia! 

O may Thy soldiers, faithful, true, and bold. 
Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old. 
And win, with them, the victors' crown of gold. 
Alleluia! 

The golden evening brightens in the west; 
Soon, soon to faithful warriors cometh rest; 
Sweet is the calm of Paradise the blest. 
Alleluia! 

But lo! there breaks a yet more glorious day; 
The saints triumphant rise in bright array; 
The King of Glory passes on His way. 
Alleluia! 

From earth's wide bounds, from ocean's farthest coast, 
Through gates of pearl, streams in the countless host, 
Singing to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, 
Alleluia! 

—Bishop William W. How, 1864. 



STORY AND SONG 545 

PLEA FOR THE YOUNO MINISTER 
Dr. p. S. Henson 

I plead not only for the battle-scarred veterans whose fight- 
ing days are over, but for the young-blooded, high-mettled, 
oncoming heroes, who are girding on their armor for the 
fray which summons them, that, unvexed by fear of future 
want, they may give themselves with utter abandon to that 
high calling with which heaven has honored them. 

How many a minister in the prime of his powers is heavily 
handicapped by the felt necessity of making provision, while 
health and strength last, against the peril of poverty when 
the evil days come, as come they will, when heart and flesh 
shall fail him, and he who has spent all his powers in caring 
for other people's perishing souls shall find nobody to care 
for his perishing body. 

As he looks about him at the poverty of men whose voices 
once rang out like a clarion call, and upon whose eloquent 
lips delighted thousands hung, but who are now hobbling 
along to humble graves with none so poor as to do them 
reverence, is it any wonder that he feels as if he owes it to 
himself and those he loves to make provision, while he may, 
against such pitiful experience ? And who can tell how much 
of splendid possibility of ministerial power is sacrificed to 
such felt necessity? 



STATESMEN AND MINISTERS 

President Roosevelt: 

"I have made quite a study of American history and have 
always been greatly interested in the thrust of our people 
westward across the continent, that movement which began 
during Revolutionary days, and which from its beginning 
included as the spiritual leaders of the pioneers an extra- 
ordinary proportion of preachers of the Methodist Church. 
It was the Methodist preacher who gave to the backwoods- 
men, as they lived in their stockaded villages among the 
dotted clearings, the spiritual life that prevented them from 
going down overwhelmed in the hard materialism of their 
surroundings." 

Vice-President Fairbanks: "The ministers, wlio liavo 



546 THE RETIRED MINISTER 

given their lives in the fullest and best sense of the word to 
the good of their fellow men, should he ])ounti fully provided 
for when the infirmities of age and other disabilities have 
come upon them." 

Senator Dolliver : '^It is the pressing duty of the Church 
to see to it that the old age of its faithful retired servants 
should not be embarrassed by poverty and want." 

GovEKXOR DuRBix, OF INDIANA: "Nothing is too good 
for tlie men who have worn themselves out in the service of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church." 



THE GRAND ARMY OF THE CHURCH 

Hats off to the Grand Army of the Republic ! 

But where camp the men who have fought the battles of 
the Church in the places of hardship and danger, and who 
now are old? Hats off for these, the Grand Army of Aged 
Ministers ! 

Yes, and while your hats are off, pass them; pass them 
farther around than they have yet gone; put more into them 
than the pittance you have been wont to contribute. 

Larger pensions for our heroes ! 

It is much to their credit, but it is little to the credit of 
the Church that so few of these heroes of the hard places die 
in the poorhouse. 

You, reader, whose eye at this moment falls on this editor- 
ial, how much did you do last year to make it impossible for 
aged ministers to die in the poorhouse? Are you proud of 
your gift ? 

The Gettysburg heroes draw pensions, every man of them, 
even though some of them may never have smelt powder. But 
not one in ten of the disabled Veterans of our Grand Army 
of the Ministry, has a pension, and those who have one have 
but a beggar's pittance. 

Go now, while you think of it, and get your checkbook. 

Hats off for the Grand Army of the Church ! And while 
the hats are off, pass them and fill them ! 



MINISTERS' SONS 

The Wesleyan Methodist Church in Great Britain main- 
tains two schools — Kingswood and Woodhouse Grove — for 



STORY AND SONG 547 

the education of sons of Methodist preachers. What we would 
call an alumni volume has recently been published, giving 
some account of the subsequent career of 3,221 former stu- 
dents, from which it appears that 515 have entered the 
Wesleyan ministry; 135 have taken orders in the Church of 
England; and forty-four have become ministers of other de- 
nominations. About eight hundred have gone into business. 
Two hundred and eighty-one are teachers. Medicine claims 
253; pharmacy, 213; engineering, 164; law, 104; civil service, 
117; and so on. Art, literature, the drama and music to- 
gether employ the energies of thirty-one. Eighteen of these 
ministers' sons have become presidents of the Conference; 
four have achieved the distinction of fellowship in the Royal 
Society, and twenty-seven have been fellows at Oxford or 
Cambridge. One of the lawyers is a member of the House 
of Lords and has held high cabinet offices, and eleven others 
have been members of Parliament. 



BE A BOOSTER 
HoMEB Clark Bennett, M.D. 

Do you know there's lots o' people, 

Settin' 'round in every town, 
Growlin' like a broody chicken, 

Knockin' every good thing down? 
Don't you be that kind of cattle, 

'Cause they ain't no use on earth. 
You just be a booster rooster. 

Crow an' boost for all you're worth. 

If things don't just seem to suit you 

An' the world seems kinder wrong 
What's the matter with a boostin'. 

Just to help the thing along; 
'Cause if things should stop a-goin', 

We'd be in a sorry plight. 
You just keep that horn a-blowin', 

Boost 'er up with all your might. 

If you see some feller tryin' 

For to make some project go, 
You can boost it up a trifle. 

That's your cue to let him know 
That you're not a-goin' to knock it. 

Just because it ain't your "shout," 
But you're goin' to boost a little, 

'Cause he's got "the best thing out." 



518 THE RETIRED MINISTER 

THE PRESBYTERIANS 

The work of relief is now carried on in the Presbyterian 
Church through its General Board of Relief. While the 
avowed basis is service and the idea of charity is strongly 
repudiated, help is actually conditioned by need. The Board 
received last year: from the churches, $122,000; from in- 
terest on endowments, $90,000 ; from legacies, $45,000 — in 
all, $260,000. It gave relief to 1,197 persons. 

Within a few years the Presbyterians have harked back 
toward their original plan and established a ministers' susten- 
tation fund, the ministers contributing, the Church adding, 
with distribution as need arises. The Board having this 
plan in charge have raised over $100,000 in two years; 640 
out of 9,000 Presbyterian ministers have joined, it is already 
paying benefits to eleven widows and six disabled ministers. 

The Presbyterians have two "homes" — one has sixteen, the 
other fourteen inmates. In the home which has sixteen in- 
mates, but one is an old minister. 



OLD AGE, THE INDIAN SUMMER OF LIFE 

Some one has well said that of all the seasons of the year 
in our American climate there is none so tender, so beautiful, 
so weird and unearthly, so fascinating and perfect as Indian 
Summer. After the buds, blossoms, heat, and harvests of 
summer ; after the autumn fruits and frosts, when the forests 
are mantled in crimson, fire and gold, when chill winds and 
vagrant snow squalls warn of the approach of winter, then 
some invisible hand seizes the galloping steeds of the seasons 
and reins them up suddenly for a few days, while earth, air, 
and sky weave around the weather-beaten brow of the year 
the golden crown of Indian Summer. The sun pours down 
a soft and dreamy golden light; the sky is robed with a 
delicate purplish gauze that seems to float ever}^vhere; the 
air is balmy and caressing. There is a bewitching charm in 
the unearthly spell that has been cast upon nature. 

And so God designs old age to be the Indian Summer of 
life, the gentlest, the tenderest, the most beautiful of all of 
life's seasons; for he says: '^And even to your old age I am 
He; and even to hoary hairs I will carry and will deliver 



STORY AND SONG 549 

you." God's special care and love for old age marks it as the 
Indian Summer of earth's pilgrimage. — Baltimore Southern 
Methodist. 



THE SECOND MILE 

The Watchman 

By Stephen Moore 

Whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile go with him tioain. 

Matt. 5. Jfl, 

Stern Duty said, "Go walk a mile 
And help thy brother bear his load. 

I walked reluctant, but meanwhile 
My heart grew soft with help bestowed. 

Then Love said, "Go another mile." 
I went, and Duty spoke no more. 

But Love arose and with a smile 
Took all the burden that I bore. 

'Tis ever thus when Duty calls; 

If we spring quickly to obey, 
Love comes, and, whatsoe'er befalls, 

We're glad to help another day. 

The second mile we walked with joy; 

Heaven's peace goes with us on the road, 
So let us all our powers employ 

To help our brother bear life's load. 



THE VILLAGE CHAPEL 

Lloyd George 

No profession demands as high qualities of head and heart 
as the ministry. Think of the catalogue of virtues which 
you demand ! judgment, tact, discretion, patience, sobriety, 
temperance — every virtue in the catalogue. In addition to 
that you demand knowledge and intelligence; and expect to 
get all these virtues for 26s. a week. Try that on the doctor ! 
You cannot keep all those virtues alive and respectable on 
a pittance, because the ministers must not merely be re- 
spectable, but must look respectable, and they certainly can- 
not provide food, clothing, houses and doctoring for them- 
selves and their families on the wretched pittance whicli they 



550 THE RETIRED MINISTER 

are getting at tlie present moment, and it is a cruelty to 
demand it at their hands. 

And what ahout hooks? A minister is not like a carpenter 
or a hricklaver, who equips himself with the implements of 
his trade at the ])eginning of his trade and gets through life. 
He must renew them every year; he has a wily opponent to 
meet, and up-to-date, who has the most modern inventions, 
and the preacher must meet him. In the villages people read, 
and the days have gone when a minister could pull through 
with a second-hand copy of Barnes' Commentary. 



THE BLIND GIRL KNOWS 

I know what Mother's face is like, 
Tliough it I cannot see: — 
It's like the music of the bell ; 
It's like the way the roses smell; 
It's like the stories fairies tell. 
It's all of these to me. 

I know what Father's face is like, 

I'm sure I know it all: — 

It's like his footstep on the stair; 

It's like his whistle on the air; 

It's like his arms that take such care, 

Nor ever let me fall. 

And I can tell what God is like, 
The God whom no one sees: — 
He's everything that Mother means; 
He's everything that Father seems; 
He's like my very sweetest dreams; 
But greater than all these. 



THE STORY THE SADDLEBAGS TELL 
The Rev. T. F. Royal 

"The saddlebags were the traveling preacher's library and 
wardrobe and often his larder; sometimes the bin for his 
horse's oats, a peck at a time. Outward bound they were al- 
ways loaded with Bibles, Sunday school libraries, and other 
books from the *^Concern.' Inward bound, they came loaded 
with ham, a flitch of bacon, a chunk of fresh meat, or a 
dressed chicken or turkey. They have conveyed all kinds of 



STOIIY AND SONG 551 

dry goods, groceries, boots, shoes, hardware and more than 
once an assortniemt of Christmas toys. These bags have 
been stretched to their utmost capacity with vegetables of all 
kinds. They have ventured to cargo such explosives as eggs 
by the dozen, gallons of sauerkraut, often a whole cheese, and 
once a gallon of soft soap; and many a time, fruits — fresh, 
dried, canned and preserved. All these were usually counted 
on 'quarterage.' 

"To the itinerant's wife the saddlebags were like a pack 
of Providence, and to his children their opening was like the 
coming of Santa Claus. Those faithful receptacles always 
brought some happy surprise for the whole household.'' 



HE LEFT ALL 

A Vanderbilt died a few days ago leaving an estate of forty 
million dollars, all of which was poured back into the coffers 
of his family. He will be numbered among those who reverse 
the truth of God to make it read, "It is more blessed to receive 
than to give." Having received bounteously, he failed in that 
final and most gracious act of returning to society a part of 
what he could not have secured alone. The day is coming 
when a man will not dare go out of the world with the 
epitaph: "He left $40,000,000 heliind him and not one cent 
before him/' 

In this case no one was disappointed, because no one ex- 
pected anything different. The really sad cases are those of 
rich Methodists who thus die poor; "having" changed the 
glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like unto 
corruptible man (Lincoln pennies), and to birds (eagle 
pennies), and four-footed beasts (buffalo nickels) ; who wor- 
ship and serve the creature more than the Creator." 

What an irony to call them "rich" ! Like the rich Laodi- 
ceans they say, "I am rich and increased with goods and have 
need of nothing and know not that they are wretched and 
miserable and poor." 



SOUTHEKN PACIFIC RAILROAD 

Since the inauguration of the Pension Department of the 
Southern Pacific Company, 1903, nearly one million dollars 



553 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

has been voluntarily disbursed among the retired employees 
of that corporation; the precise amount being $850,608. 

The total disbursements for June were $14,010.35, divided 
among 420 men and women, retired employees of the South- 
ern Pacific Company. 



NEW YORK CITY FIRE DEPARTMENT PENSIONS 

The New York City Fire Department Relief Fund report 
for 1914 shows an increase of forty-five annuitants, the 
smallest in many years. 

There are 1,681 annuitants on the pension rolls, drawing 
$1,063,739.73 annually; a net increase of $27,283.33 over 
the amount paid during 1913. 



THROWN TO THE SCRAP HEAP 

At the recent session of the British Wesleyan Conference, 
fifty-five ministers, many of them men of ability and learn- 
ing, were retired from active work. The Methodist Recorder 
says: "It is one of the grim ironies of our itinerant system 
that at a period when other skilled workers are in the prime 
of power, these spiritual laborers should be seeking the 
shades. At sixty a cabinet minister would be thought to have 
his most distinguished years ahead, and ministers of other 
Churches are steadily advancing to widest influence." 

The Recorder finds an explanation of the existing condi- 
tions in the fact of "the invitations given to junior men for 
filling the most responsible positions," and adds that "sensi- 
tive, gifted men, when invitations fail, think they hear the 
'knell of parting day.' " AATiether this explanation be en- 
tirely correct we cannot say, but we are certain that it con- 
tains elements of the truth. In the Churches of America as 
well as those of England there is a clamor for younger men. 
Bishop Hoss has called it "a popular demand for greens." 
It is reported of Bishop Candler that when a committee told 
him that what they needed in their pastor was "young blood," 
he replied, "0, no, brethren ! You are in error about that. 
Half the pulpits are suffering now from cholera infantum." 

To cast aside a whole class of men simply because they 
have reached a certain age is a cruelty and a costly waste, 



FOKMAL PEOCEEDINGS 553 

FORMAL PROCEEDINGS 
OF THE WASHINGTON CONVENTION 

Tuesday, October 27, 1914. 

The first National Convention in belialf of the Retired 
Ministers and other Conference Claimants met in the Metro- 
politan Methodist Episcopal Church, Washington, D. C, on 
Tuesday afternoon, October 27. Dr. James S. Montgomery, 
Minister, and his Board of Trustees generously placed this 
church, admirably adapted for holding large gatherings, at 
the disposal of the Convention. 

Bishop Earl Cranston, D.D., LL.D., senior bishop, 
opened the Convention and conducted the devotional services, 
the Rev. George C. Wilding, D.D., of the Newark Conference 
leading in prayer. 

Bishop Cranston's Address 

Bishop Cranston addressed the Convention as follows: 
"In some things we are permitted to depart from the ex- 
ample of the fathers, but in the spirit of our common Min- 
istry we are bound for time and eternity. So long as we find 
ourselves among those to whom for the time being the cause 
of God and of men is committed, it behooves us to prove 
our loyalty and fitness not only by fidelity of speech, industry 
of action and reverence of spirit, but also by devising the 
means that may contribute immediately or remotely to the 
ultimate victory of Jesus Christ. In that kind of service we 
are engaged to-day. 

"I am called away from other tasks on one of my busiest 
days; but I am. not sorry to find myself here to invoke \i]Hm 
you a blessing, and to voice a- prayer that God will be with 
you in all your counsels together, and that out of these days 
of communing and determining there shall come a campaign 
that shall issue in victory, I see that District Superintend- 
ents from the Washington Area are here. I addressed all of 
them individually. It was not possible for some to be here, 
and others will yet arrive. I am sure they do not object to 
what was almost an episcopal command; for the hearts of 
all our preachers are in this task. If we can only communi- 
cate to the Church the convictions we hold, Dr. Hingeley and 



551 THE EETIEED MIXISTER 

the Board of Conference Claimants and his associates in the 
Annual Conferences will have little difficulty in achieving 
what they have undertaken. But the conviction must first 
possess us; and we must be so completely dominated by what 
appears to us to be the command of God to do a work of 
justice that we shall go courageously forward. 

"On the battle-line yonder they are fighting desperately, and 
none can tell what the issue will be. But that is not our 
kind of a fight. We are engaged in setting before the Church 
a cause which is absolutely just. Its foundations as set forth 
in our book of Discipline are impregnable. I shall never 
be sorry that I was present when the words were first written 
and shall never forget that it was a great la}aiian, Robert T. 
Miller, who insisted that it should go in as the fundamental 
proposition that Hlie claim to a comfortable support inheres 
in the Gospel Ministry' ; and that 'such is not invalidated 
by his being retired, and at his death passes to the dependent 
me rubers of Ids family/ 

"On such a foundation you have been building, and on that 
proposition I believe the Church will be found ready to carry 
forward the 1915 CAMPAIGX that has been ordered by the 
General Conference.'' 

The Rev. J. B. Hingeley, D.D., Corresponding Secretary 
of the Board of Conference Claimants, made a statement as 
to the business and scope of the Convention. 

Officers and Committees were elected as follow\s: Presiding 
Officers to ])e the Bishops when tliey could be present. 

Officers 

Yice-Presidexts : The Rev. E. M. Mills, D.D., Central 
Xew York Conference: the Rev. J. W. Van Cleve, D.D., 
Illinois Conference ; the Rev. J. M. Leonard, D.D., Xew Eng- 
land Conference; the Rev. E. L. Decker, D.D., Troy Confer- 
ence ; and Mr. J. L. Transue, Williamson, X. Y., Central Xew 
York Conference. 

Secretary: The Rev. M. E. Snyder, Ph.D., Xew Jersey 
Conference : Assistant Secretary, the Rev. J. C. Youker, Rock 
River Conference : the Rev. C. R. Oaten, Xorthern Minnesota 
Conference. 

Publicity Secretaries: The Rev. Horace Lincoln Jacobs, 
D.D., Central Pennsylvania Conference; the Rev. L. M. 



FORMAL PROCEEDIJSTGS 555 

Chambers, D.D., and the Rev. W. L. McDowell, D.D., Balti- 
more Conference; the Rev. E. C. E. Dorion, D.D., New 
Hampshire Conference; the Rev. W. B. Norton, D.D., Rock 
River Conference; and the Rev. J. H. Pearce, D.D., Central 
New York Conference. 

Committee on Nominations and Convention Work: 
The Rev. C. W. Baldwin, D.D., Baltimore Conference; the 
Rev. F. T. Keeney, D.D., Central New York Conference ; the 
Rev. U. C Humphrey, D.D., West Ohio Conference; the 
Rev. I. H. Lidstone, D.D., East Maine Conference; and the 
Rev. J. B. Hingeley, D.D., Northern Minnesota Conference. 

After the organization of the Convention, the afternoon 
program was carried out without a single break. Every 
speaker was there with his paper. This was practically true 
of the entire program. 

Greetings 

Mr. Justice Thomas H. Anderson, one of the supreme 
judges of the District of Columbia and a member of the 
Metropolitan Church, greeted the members of the. Conven- 
tion and gave them a warm and hearty welcome to the Na- 
tional Capital, on behalf of himself and church and the 
Metliodism of Washington. The Rev. Joseph W. Van Cleve, 
D.D., responded in the name of the Convention. (See page 
335.) 

President Wilson 

A letter from the President of the United States was read 
conveying his greetings and expressing his sincere hope that 
"the cause of Justice and Benevolence" represented by the 
Convention might be successfully carried out. (See page 317.) 
The letter was received with great applause and by resolution, 
unanimously adopted, the Secretary was requested to express 
to the President the pleasure of the Convention upon receiv- 
ing his letter and its high appreciation of his greetings and 
well wishes. (See page 318.) 

The Rev. J. B. Hingeley, D,D., gave an address on "The 
Problem and Its Solution." The next three papers were 
under the general head of "Present Organizations" in the 
Methodist Episcopal Church for the support of Conference 
Claimants. "Methodism's Oldest Institution — The Chartered 



556 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

Fund" was read by the Rev. Elwin Hitchcock, D.D., Agent 
of the Permanent Fund of the Xew Hampshire Conference. 
The Rev. George P. Mains, D.D., of the New York East 
Conference, one of the Publishing Agents of The Methodist 
Book Concern, read a paper on "The Claimants' Great Asset 
— The Book Concern Dividend." (See page 409.) 

The Rev. John Krantz, D.D., Newark Conference, read a 
sketch of "Ezekiel Cooper and John Dickins." (See page 
451.) The Rev. E. C. Clemans, D.D., Field Representative of 
the Board of Conference Claimants, addressed the Convention 
on "The Claimants' Greatest Asset — Annual Contributions 
by the Churches — The Apportionment" (see page 421), and 
tlie afternoon program closed with a paper by the Rev. 
Isaac H. Lidstone, D.D., Chairman of the Board of Stewards 
of the East Elaine Conference, on "The Debt of»tlie Nation 
to the Ministry." (See page 53.) 

EvExixG Sessiox — Tuesday 

The Rev. E. M. Mills, D.D., Central New York Conference, 
took the chair at the evening session, and the Rev. L. Olin 
Sherburne, D.D., Vermont Conference, conducted the devo- 
tions. 

Bishop AYilliam Eraser McDowell, D.D., LL.D., President 
of the Board of Conference Claimants, addressed the Con- 
vention on "We Shall AVin." (See page 329.) 

Mr. J. L. Transue, Williamson, N. Y., addressed the 
Convention on "Approaching a Crisis." (See page 349.) 

The Rev. F. T. Keeney, D.D., of the Central New York 
Conference, delivered an address on "Paving the Last Mile 
for the Itinerant." (See page 19.) 

Dr. J. B. Hingeley spoke on what the Conferences generally 
were doing, and the session adjourned with the Benediction 
by the Rev. James S. Montgomery, D.D. 

MoRxixG Sessiox — Wedx^esday, October 28, 1914 
Bishop Thomas B. Neely presided, and the Rev. Hugh 
Johnston, D.D., Baltimore Conference, conducted the devo- 
tional services. The Committee ox Nomix^atiox^s ax^d Con- 
VEXTiox' WoEK made the following nominations : 

(1) Committee ox^ Fortvardixg the Busix^ess of the 
Cox^vextiox" : The Rev. J. B. Hingeley, D.D., Northern 



FORMAL PROCEEDINGS 557 

Minnesota Conference; the Rev. E. C. E. Dorion, D.D., New 
Hampshire Conference; and the Rev. J. W. Van Cleve, D.D., 
Illinois Conference. (2) Committee on Courtesies: The 
Rev. Whitford L. McDowell, D.D., and the Rev. James Shera 
Montgomery, D.D., Baltimore Conference; the Rev. L. 0. 
Sherburne, D.D., Vermont Conference; the Rev. C. A. 
Kelley, D.D., Rock River Conference; and Messrs. W. T. 
Gallier, T. F. Layton and Gardnier Johnson, Washington, 
D. C. (3) Committee on Literature and Registration: 
The Rev. E. C. Clemans, D.D., Northern Minnesota Confer- 
ence; the Rev. L. M. Ferguson, Baltimore Conference; and 
the Rev. G. W. Kepler, D.D., West Virginia Conference. 
(4) Committee on Resolutions: The Rev. F. T. Keeney, 
D.D., Central New York Conference; the Rev. Frank P. 
Parkin, D.D., Philadelphia Conference ; the Rev. S. J. Green- 
field, D.D., Northern New York Conference; the Rev. Allan 
MacRossie, D.D., New York Conference; the Rev. E. C. E. 
Dorion, D.D., New Hampshire Conference; the Rev. J. A. 
Sargent, D.D., Indiana Conference; the Rev. W. A. Layton, 
D.D., New York East Conference ; the Rev. Horace L. Jacobs, 
D.D., Central Pennsylvania Conference; the Rev. S. A. 
Morse, D.D., Genesee Conference; the Rev. J. W. Van Cleve, 
D.D., Illinois Conference; and the Rev. James Hamilton, 
D.D., Michigan Conference. (5) Committee on Financing 
THE Campaign: Bishop W. F. McDowell, D.D., LL.D., the 
Rev. W. G. Koons, D.D., Wilmington Conference; Mr. Sum- 
merfield Baldwin, Baltimore Conference ; the Rev. A. B. Rich, 
D.D., Erie Conference; the Rev. F. T. Keeney, D.D., Central 
New York Conference; the Rev. M. E. Evans, D.D., North- 
East Ohio Conference; Mr. J. L. Transue, Central New 
York Conference; Mr. John Andrus, New York Conference; 
the Rev. John Krantz, D.D., Newark Conference; and the 
Rev. J. W. Van Cleve, D.D., Illinois Conference. (6) Com- 
mittee ON Expressing to the Bishops the Thanks of 
IHE Convention : The Rev. F. T. Keeney, D.D., Central New 
York Conference ; the Rev. Joel M. Leonard, D.D., New Eng- 
land Conferenqe; the Rev. Robert Stephens, Illinois Con- 
ference; the Rev. W. A. Layton, D.D., New York East Con- 
ference; the Rev. I. H. Lidstone, D.D., East Maine Confer- 
ence; the Rev. W. L. McDowell, D.D., and the Rev. James 
S. Montgomery, D.D., Baltimore Conference. 



558 THE EETIEED MIXISTER 

"Methodism's Youngest Institution — The Board of Con- 
ference Claimants" was the suhject of an address by the Eev. 
James Hamilton, D.D., of the Michigan Conference. (See 
page 425.) 

The Eev. S. J. Greenfield, D.D., Field Secretary, Preachers' 
Permanent Fund Commission of the Northern Xew York 
Conference, delivered an address on "Annual Conference En- 
dowments." (See page 415.) An address on "Cooperation 
Between Annual Conference Organizations and the Board of 
Conference Claimants" was given l)y the Eev. S. A. Morse, 
D.D., Secretary of the Permanent Fund of the Genesee Con- 
ference. (Page 369.) The Eev. C. AV. Miller, A.M., of the 
Pittsburgh Conference, could not be present owing to ill- 
health, but he had forwarded his paper on ""Why a Service 
Pension?" The paper was read by the Eev. Horace L. 
Jacobs, D.D., of the Central Pennsylvania Conference, and a 
resolution of aj)preciation of the address was unanimously 
adopted. (See page 67.) 

The Committee appointed to Express the Thaxks of 
THE CoxvEXTiox TO THE BiSHOPS presented their report 
which was unanimously adopted and the Committee in- 
structed to present the report in person to the Bishops 
assembled in their semiannual meeting in Foundry Methodist 
EpiscojDal Church, "Washington. (See page 315.) 

IXTRODUCTIOXS 

The Eev. John E. Stewart, D.D., Agent Superannuate 
Fund, Methodist Episcopal Church, South; the Eev. Alfred 
J. P. McClure, D.D., Treasurer and Financial Agent of the 
General Clergy Eelief Fund of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church; the Eev. "William B. Matteson, D.D., Financial 
Secretary of the Baptist Ministers' Home Society; and the 
Eev. S. L. Loomis, D.D., member of the Ministerial Eelief 
Committee and Chairman of the Committee on Ministerial 
Annuities of the Congregational Church, were introduced and 
brous^ht the greetings of their respective denominations. 

The Eev. E. C. E. Dorion, D.D., Member of the Board of 
Conference Claimants and Associate Editor of Z ion's Herald, 
gave an address on "The 1915 Campaign — Cooperative, 
Intensive, Extensive." (See page 383.) 

The Eev. "W. D. Slease, D.D., Agent Centenary Fund So- 



FORMAL PEOCEEDINGS 559 

ciety of the Pittsburgh Conference, on "Leadership of Annual 
Conference Agents/^ (See page 375.) 

The Rev. Frank P. Parkin, D.D., District Superintendent 
Central District, Philadelphia Conference, on "Leadership of 
District Superintendents." (See page 3iu.) 

The Rev. J. B. Hingeley, D.D., Corresponding Secretary 
of the Board of Conference Claimants, delivered an address 
on "The Leadership of the Board of Conference Claimants." 
(See page 379.) 

Bishop Thomas B. Neely 

The discussion was closed by Bishop Neely, who spoke on 
"Cooperation on the Part of the Bishops." (See page 365.) 
The following resolMtion was unanimously adopted : 
It is with peculiar pleasure and satisfaction that we have 
had for the presiding officer of this Wednesday morning 
session our beloved Bishop, the Rev. Thomas B. Neely, D.D., 
LL.D., whose interest in the purpose of this Convention and 
the challenging cause of Conference Claimants is increasingly 
inspiring. We rejoice in his presence among us, and in his 
word and leadership. Upon him Ave entreat the great Head 
of the Church to bestow his grace, health, increase of days 
and strength for continued service and widening usefulness 
to the kingdom of our Lord. 

Horace L. Jacobs, Central Pennsylvania Conference. 
W. F. ConinTee, Pittsburgh Conference. 
Albert H. Rich, Erie Conference. 

Afternoon Session — Wednesday 

Group Meetings were on the program and they were held 
in various rooms in the church. Annual Conference Agents, 
Conference Representatives, District Superintendents and 
Board members met with the Rev. F. T. Keency presiding. 
The members of the Veterans of the Cross Fellowship, Retired 
Ministers and other claimants met with the Rev. V. A. 
Cooper, D.D., New England Conference, official organizer of 
the Fellowship. (See resolutions, page 561.) 

The Rev. Charles W. Baldwin, D.D., Baltimore Conference, 
presided at the afternoon meeting of the Convention, and 
the Rev. V. A. Cooper, D.D., led in prayer. "The Campaign 
in the Swedish Conferences" was the subject of an address 



560 THE EETIRED MINISTER 

by the Rev. Herman Young, D.D., Eastern Swedish Confer- 
ence. (See page 359.) 

The Rev. William H. Dean, D.D., of the Washington 
Conference read a paper on "The Campaign Among the 
Colored Conferences.'^ (See page 363.) 

The Rev. Stedman Applegate, D.D., of the Xew Jer- 
sey Conference, gave an address on "Old-Age, Mothers, and 
Government Pens ions.'' (See page 251.) The Rev. E. L. Wat- 
son, D.D., Baltimore Conference, spoke on "Deferred Pay- 
ments to Veteran Preachers." He greatly interested all by 
showing the last written words of Bishop Asbury, written two 
days before his death. (See page 467.) Two historic 
Churches, "John Street," Xew York City, and "St. George's," 
Philadelphia, were subjects of sketches read by the Rev. J. 
Wesley Jolmston. D.D., New York East Conference, and the 
Rev. Frank P. Parkin, D.D., Philadelphia Conference. The 
sketch of St. George's Church was written by its pastor, the 
Rev. J. S. Hughes, D.D., Philadelphia Conference, but owing 
to sickness he was unable to be present. (See page 461.) 

Evening Sessiox — Wednesday 

Three great addresses were the features of the evening 
program. The Rev. G. W. Kepler, D.D., West Virginia Con- 
ference, presided, and the Rev. Charles W. Baldwin, D.D., 
of the Baltimore Conference, led in prayer. 

The Rev. L. J. Birney, D.D., Xew England Conference, 
Dean of the Boston University School of Theology, addressed 
the Convention on "The Retiring Competence as Related to 
the Call to Preach." (See page 31.) 

"Savings vs. Efficiency" was the theme of an address by 
the Rev. J. W. Van Cleve, D.D., Illinois Conference, Vice- 
President of the Board of Conference Claimants of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church. (See page 43.) 

Bishop R. J. Cooke, D.D., LL.D., was introduced and 
spoke on "The Justice of the Retired Preachers' Claim and 
Its Relation to the Permanence of Organized Religion." (See 
page 111.) 

MoRxixG Session — Thursday, October 29, 1914 

Bishop Jos. F. BeriT, D.D., LL.D., presided at the morn- 
ing session, and the devotional exercises were in charge of 
the Rev. L. E. Lennox, D.D., Michigan Conference. 



Mi 



FORMAL PROCEEDIN-QS 561 

The Rev. Joel M. Leonard, D.D., New England Conference, 
presented the following 

Resolutions Adopted by Yetekan Peeachers in Attend- 
ance ON the Washington Convention 

Whereas, We, the Retired Ministers and other claimants, 
are members of the Washington Convention by the courteous 
invitation of the Rev. J. B. Hingeley, D.D., Corresponding 
Secretary of the Board of Conference Claimants, and thereby 
are permitted to enjoy its privileges, purposes and aims; 
therefore be it 

Resolved, 1. That we heartily thank Dr. Hingeley for the 
honor conferred and the opportunities afforded us, and for 
the opportunity of learning more fully about the Veterans 
of the Cross Fellowship. 

Resolved, 2. That while we are very grateful for the benev- 
olent contributions which we have received in the past by 
which we were enabled to meet in part the daily necessities 
of life, we appreciate beyond the power of expression the ac- 
tion of the General Conference of 1908 (See Discipline, 
Tl 323) that we are no longer necessitous cases only, but 
honored Veterans of the Church and just claimants worthy 
of a "comfortable support.^' Our hearts burn within us as 
we contemplate the good hand of our God upon us. 0, that 
the Church might know the gratitude we feel ! 

Resolved, 3. That expressing as we believe the sentiments 
of all Retired Ministers and other claimants, we will cooperate 
in all ways we can to make successful the stupendous move- 
ment of the Board of Conference Claimants to inaugurate a 
Campaign for Five Million Dollars, to meet the request of 
the General Conference of 1912, to provide sufficient perma- 
nent funds, to pay the annuities and necessities which two 
General Conferences have judged us worthy to receive. 

Papers on "What the Railroads and Corporations are Do- 
ing," were presented. A paper on the "Pension System of tlie 
Pennsylvania Lines," prepared by Mr, John W. Rcnner, Secre- 
tary of the Pension Department, Pennsylvania Railroad, was 
read by the Rev. C. A. Kelley, D.D., of the Rock River 
Conference. (See page 233.) 

A paper on "Pensions in Industrial Corporations" pre- 
pared by Mr. J. 0. Pew, President and General Manager of the 



562 THE EETIRED MIXISTEE 

Yoiingstown (Oliio) Steel Company, vras presented. (See 
pao-e 2-11.) 

Bishop Jos. F. Berry, D.D., LL.D., addressed the Conven- 
tion, stating that the Bishops are in hearty sympathy with the 
proposed Campaign in behalf of Conference Claimants. 

What Other Churches Are Doing 

"What Other Churches Are Doing'' was considered and 
the Protestant Episcopal Church was represented by the Eey. 
Alfred J. P. McClure, D.D., Treasurer and Financial Agent 
of the General Clergy Eelief Fund of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church. (See page 151.) 

The Baptist Church was represented by the Eev. "William 
B. Matteson, D.D., Financial Secretary of the Baptist Min- 
isters' Home Society. (See page 195.) 

Eev. William H. Foulkes, D.D., Secretary ^linisterial Ee- 
lief and Sustentation of the Presbyterian Church, spoke of 
the plans of his Church for the care of Eetired Ministers. 
(See page 165.) 

The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was represented 
by the Eev. John E. Stewart, D.D., Agent Superannuate 
Fund, Methodist Episcopal Church, South. (See page 183.) 

Eesolutioxs 

The following report of the Committee ox Eesolutions 
was presented and unanimously adopted : 

The Laymex 
In view of the widespread interest of the laymen in the 
"comfortable support" of Conference Claimants and the suc- 
cess which has attended their efforts in the Conferences where 
laymen's associations have been promoted, we urge that all 
la}Tiien's associations enlist themselves heartily in this plan 
and we recommend that la}Tiien's associations be organized in 
every Conference and on every district where they do not 
already exist, for the purpose of making the 1915 CxVM- 
PAIGN for Conference Claimants successful. 

Episcopal Areas 

In harmony with the action of the General Conference and 
the unanimous indorsement of the Board of Bishops at their 



FORMAL I'liOCEEDINCS 563 

spring meeting to set apart the year 1915 for the Veterans, 
and in view of the proposed plan of organizing the Confer- 
ences in each Episcopal Area, and of uniting them for cam- 
paign purposes, we urge the representatives of the various 
Conferences to cooperate with their Eesident Bishop and with 
each other in perfecting their organizations at the earliest pos- 
sible moment. 

Full Apportionments 

Whereas, The enactment of the rule requiring the prorat- 
ing of the moneys received for ministerial support evidenced 
the will of the Church that no ministerial claims should be 
favored at the expense of any other; and 

Whereas, The apportionment by Annual Conferences 
of less than the full amount of the claims of Conference 
Claimants tends directly to defeat the purpose of this rule; 
therefore be it 

Resolved, That we urge upon all Annual Conferences and 
Conference Boards of Stewards the apportionment of the full 
amount of the claim, so that, if all the apportionments are met 
in fall, all Eetired Ministers, as well as ministers in the 
effective relation, shall receive the full amount of their claims. 

Campaign Expenses 

Whereas, A large expenditure will be required to provide 
for properly leading the Church in the 1915 CxlMPAIGX, and 

Whereas, The Funds specially secured for the general 
work are practically exhausted and the regular income of the 
Board is necessarily devoted to special uses and cannot be used 
in general work, and the moneys which can be applied to the 
general expenses of the Campaign are small, therefore be it 

Resolved, That we endorse the action of the Board of Con- 
ference Claimants in projecting this Convention and thus 
bringing together for conference and mutual inspiration a 
number of the men who have the responsibilities of the can- 
vass; that we approve of the expense incurred as a wise and 
profitable investment of money for the cause of Conference 
Claimants, and that we further endorse the plan to hohl a 
similar Convention in the city of Chicago near the beginning 
of the campaign year; be it further. 

Resolved, That we authorize the Corresponding Secretary 



564 THE RETIEED MINISTER. 

of the Board of Conference Claimants to secure by such means 
as may seem to him wise and proper, moneys which may be 
used to defray the general expenses of the Campaign. 

Resolved, Tliat ice request the ministers in ejfective rela- 
tion til rough out the tvltole Church to contribute sums of from 
one to five dollars for the expense of the general campaign in 
which all Conferences are to share; he it further 

Resolved, That we authorize the Corresponding Secretary 
to state the situation to such laymen a^ he may have reason 
to believe will be disposed to help in financing the campaign 
and secure from them gifts for this purpose. 

Common Mixisterial Budget 

Whereas, Much difficulty and embarrassment in the collec- 
tion and prorating of moneys for ministerial support arise 
from the raising of money for Conference Claimants in con- 
nection with the benevolences; therefore be it 

Resolved, That we urge upon district superintendents, 
pastors and church stewards throughout the Church to raise 
the money for Conference Claimants in a common budget 
with other items of ministerial support, wherever practicable, 
and that in all cases it be raised separately from the benevo- 
lent collections. 

IXVITATIOX TO THE BiSHOPS 

During the earlier part of the session, the Rev. J. B. 
Hingeley, D.D., visited the Bishops in their semi-annual meet- 
ing in Foundry Church and presented to them an invitation 
to be present in a body on Thursday evening. (See page 316.) 

The Rev. M. E. Snyder, Ph.D., read a letter from the secre- 
tary of the President of the United States, in which he stated 
that the President had read with great appreciation the reso- 
lution adopted by the Convention at its Tuesday session. 

Aeterxoox Session — Thursday 

The members of the Convention met in Episcopal area 
groups to consider matters of interest concerning Conference 
Claimants as related to the Conferences included in the sev- 
eral areas. These groups were presided over as follows : 

Washington Area — Rev. W. L. McDowell, D.D., Baltimore 
Conference. 



FORMAL PROCEEDINGS 565 

Boston Area — Rev. J. M. Leonard, D.D., New England 
Conference. 

New York Area — Rev. Allan MacRossie, D.D., New York 
Conference. 

Philadelphia Area — Rev. W. G. Koons, D.D., Wilmington 
Conference. 

Buffalo Area — Rev. S. J. Greenfield, D.D., Northern New 
York Conference. 

After the meetings of the Area groups, the Rev. S. J. 
Greenfield, D.D., Northern New York Conference, took the 
chair, and the Rev. W. H. Miller, D.D., Ohio Conference, led 
in prayer. 

What Other Churches Are Doing 

The discussion of the general subject, ^^What the Other 
Churches Are Doing," was resumed. Presbyterian Church of 
the United States (Southern Presbyterian) was represented 
by the Rev. Plenry H. Sweets, D.D., Secretary of Education 
and Ministerial Relief. (See page 175.) 

The Rev. S. L. Loomis, D.D., member of the Ministerial 
Relief Committee and Chairman of the Committee on Minis- 
terial Annuities of the Congregational Church, spoke on 
"What the Congregational Churches are Doing for the Relief 
of the Veteran Preachers." (See page 207.) 

Mr. Marvin Campbell, Member of the Board of Conference 
Claimants, had prepared a paper on "The Layman and the 
Claimants." Owing to illness in his family, Mr. Campbell 
could not be present, but his paper was presented to the Con- 
vention. (See page 79.) 

Literature 

The Committee on Literature and Registration submitted 
the following report, which was unanimously adopted: 

Whereas^ Our General Secretary, the Rev. Joseph B. 
Hingeley, has created and put in circulation a splendid liter- 
ature pertaining to the work of the Board of Conference 
Claimants, which covers every phase of the work for better 
support of Retired Ministers, and 

Whereas, Tliis literature is of great value to tlie field 
secretaries, agents of Conference funds. Boards of Stewards^ 



5GG THE EETIT^ED MIXTSTEE 

and to all concerned in the work of caring for Veteran Preach- 
ers, and 

Whkreas, AA e helieve that this splendid output of the print- 
ing press ouglit to be scattered like the leaves of autunin 
among our ^lethodist people; therefore be it 

Bcsolved, That we will give this literature the widest circu- 
lation. 

Besolved, That we appreciate the fact that all of the leaflets 
and other matter that can be used by the various Conferences 
are to be so arranged that they can be used for local circula- 
tion, by leaving space where may be printed matter suitable 
for local needs and conditions and that we recommend that 
the Board of Conference Claimants print and put into circu- 
lation such literature as may be printed and circulated by the 
secretaries of Conference organizations which may be suitable 
for general circulation. 

"We recommend that all literature published by the Board 
of Conference Claimants be furnished at cost to Conference 
agents of permanent funds and Preachers' Aid Societies. 

We heartily commend the purpose of the General Secretar}^ 
to arrange the Veteran Preacher so that each Conference may 
have a special edition with several pages including the cover 
for the publishing of any matter that may be desirable for 
local information. 

"The Retired Mixistee — His Claim'' 

We suggest to all concerned the very great importance of 
the forthcoming book. The Retired Minister — His Claim In- 
herent, Foremost and Supreme, in which the proceedings of 
this Convention will be published and the papers and addresses 
of the Convention, the Address and Appeal of the Bishops, 
the addresses of the Eepresentatives of other Denominations, 
important documents and literature bearing on the work for 
better support for Conference Claimants, will furnish material 
for pastors who are preparing special sermons and addresses 
and will inform la^Tiien as to what is being done for this 
great cause. A copy of the book should be in the hands of 
every preacher and la^Tnan. 

C W. ivEPLER, L. M. Fergusox, Committee. 



FOEMAL PEOCEEDINGS 567 

Courtesies 

The Committee on Courtesies presented the following reso- 
lutions, which were unanimously adopted : 

We hereby express our appreciation of the many courtesies 
which have contributed so much to make this Convention 
pleasant and profitable. 

Our thanks are due and are now extelided to the proprietor 
of the National Hotel, Washington; to the Baltimore and 
Ohio Eailway Company for its consideration in travel; to the 
Metropolitan Methodist Episcopal Church, its pastor, the Eev. 
James Shera Montgomery, D.D., and his people, for their 
unstinted kindness during our stay as their guests; to our 
genial and efficient Corresponding Secretary, the Eev. J. B. 
Hingeley, D.D., for his wise and untiring labors in calling 
this Convention and in leading it to gratifying success; 
to those who have taken part in the program for their 
inspiring and helpful addresses, especially to those who 
are representatives of Denominations other than our own, 
namely, the Eev. Alfred J. P. McClure, D.D., of the Protes- 
tant Episcopal Church; the Eev. W. B. Matteson, D.D., of the 
Baptist Church; the Eev. William H. Foulkes, D.D., of the 
Presbyterian Church; the Eev. John E. Stewart, D.D., of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, South; the Eev. Henry S. 
Sweets, D.D., of the Southern Presbyterian Church; and the 
Eev. S. L. Loomis, D.D., of the Congregational Church. 

We also desire to express our gratitude to the Press for 
their kindness in giving publicity to the work of this Conven- 
tion and thus helping forward our great cause. 

We also express our gratitude to the District Superintend- 
ent, the Eev. Whitford L. McDowell, D.D., and the Local 
Committee of the Washington Preachers' Meeting for their 
kindness in planning so wisely for the comfort of the Con- 
vention, and to the secretaries who have so faithfully served 
us. 

We record our appreciation of the presence and help of the 
Bishops in our meetings, many of whom were on our pro- 
gram and gave us most helpful addresses. 

F. T. Keexky^ Chairman. 

The Eev. Allan MacEossie, D.D., of the New York Con- 



568 THE EETIEED MINISTER 

ference gave an address on "The Larger Meaning of the Pro- 
gram.'^ Dr. J. B. Hingeley spoke parting words as follows: 

Brothers, I would not attempt to hide my gratification and 
delight with this Convention. The thought in calling it was 
that we might get together in spirit and fact throughout the 
entire Church; and that we might receive the inspiration, 
which has already come to us, from the knowledge of what the 
other Churches are doing, and have the opportunity of adding 
new inspiration to their leaders. 

I presume that if we were beginning matters anew, we 
might not have quite so many agencies, but there is one beauty 
about the Methodist machine, that while there may be compli- 
cations or duplications of machinery, somehow or other the 
product comes out, and we are doing business efficiently in 
many dilferent ways, with a common result. Occasionally 
brethren say, "There ought to be one connectional organiza- 
tion, and all these funds should be under its administrative 
control.'' If we were beginning and trying to project a new 
institution, with the knowledge we now have, we might plan 
that way; but we are adapting plans of work to meet varying 
conditions, some of the provisions being more than three- 
score and ten years old, while one has passed far beyond the 
century mark. No one is inclined to interfere with anything 
that is being done, except it be to adjust the several parts, so 
that there may be consistency in the outcome. Sometimes 
I almost envy our brethren in the Presbyterian Church who 
have one common central organization, and I think of what it 
must be to he at the head of an organization which consoli- 
dates the entire movement ; but it is better far to l)e the official 
head of a great organization which is closely related to 105 
Conference organizations with complete unity of heart and 
purpose. 

Great connectional dividends of the Book Concern, the 
Chartered Eund and the Board of Conference Claimants all 
have their places, and fall into the general plan like the 
orderly movements of sections of a great army ; while Annual 
Conference funds, and contributions from the pastoral 
charges supplement what comes from the outside. The dis- 
tribution to Claimants is not made by a central Board, but 
by Annual Conferences, which know all the conditions. 



A SUMMARY 569 

I have been delighted with the reports of our brothers of 
other churches. The problem of distribution is the same in 
every church — to provide help on the score of need, and to 
distribute according to service, apart from any question of 
need. It has been somewhat difficult to get rid of the old 
fashioned methods. The questions used in Annual Confer- 
ences when we began the work would almost paralyze the will- 
ingness of an intelligent, self-respecting Preacher to receive 
the money. But to-day there are simply two questions in 
order in the Methodist Episcopal Church as far as my annu- 
ity right is concerned : ^^What is your name ? How long have 
you been in the effective ministry?^' Anything more is an 
impertinence. It is nobody's business how poor I am. By 
the laws of the Methodist Episcopal Church my claim is de- 
termined on the basis of my years of service, and that is 
recorded. Methodism is, first of all, paying its debts, and 
then, when necessary, giving gifts. My butcher does not want 
me to say, "I owe you twenty dollars. I will pay you ten 
dollars, but as you are a good fellow, and your family is grow- 
ing up and you have had sickness, I will give you ten dollars." 
He would tell me, "I'm not a beggar. Keep your gift for 
paupers and pay me what you owe me/' The 1915 CAM- 
PAIGN is to make it possible for every Conference to pay its 
Eetired Ministers what the law allows, and then to give what- 
ever else may be needed. 

I was very much interested to find a letter from an Ojibway 
Indian Preacher, breathing his prayer that God's blessing 
might be upon the Convention. Eight years ago, in the 
wilderness of Northern Minnesota, an Ojibway medicine man, 
Tay-Bay-Wain-Dung, adopted me as his son, and gave to 
me the beautiful name of "Kee-Tche-Me-Wah-Nah-Nah- 
Quod." I never knew why, until that fall when I visited 
the Gulf Conference, and an old Preacher with shining face 
and glistening eye said, "You are the fellow that is making the 
old fellows happy !" Then I knew. For "Kee-Tche-^Ie-Wah- 
Nah-Nah-Quod" means, "A Big Cloud Full of Blessing." It 
is a delight when the glistening eyes of the Veterans take on 
new luster as they speak my name ; not because of myself but 
because they recognize me as the representative of every one 
who loves the old Preacher. 

The meaning of the 1915 CAMPAIGN cannot l)c fully 



570 



THE EETIEED MIXISTER 



interpreted by the benefits which will come to the Eetired 
Preachers, the widows and orphans. Its fulfillment means 
a "dependable Annuity or pension" for all the future, so that 
as the young Minister takes his ordination vows, he shall 
know that back of the promises made to him of a comfort- 
able support there are invested sufficient funds to make the 
promise good. The income will not be his during his active 
ministerial life, but some day when he shall have fulfilled 
those vows, it will be his as long as he lives; and he will have 
the added joy of knowing that until he needs it others, his 
brethren, will be benefited by it, and that when his time passes 
others perpetually will enjoy its blessings. 

As we have listened to the addresses on the influence of this 
movement on ministerial efficiency, we cannot doubt that the 
young Minister will take his vows with greater confidence, 
freedom and consecration, knowing that adequate provision 
has been made for his old age. For that is what this proposi- 
tion means. It will mean a thousandfold more to the men in 
the strength of their ministerial manhood than to the old 
Preachers. I thank God that the Methodist Episcopal Church 
is recognizing more completely than ever before that it is the 
duty of the laity to support the Minister, effective and retired, 
just as it is the duty of the Preacher to minister in God's 
name, and I am glad to hear the statement repeated from the 
lips of the brethren of our sister churches who have spoken 
to-day. Let us not get away from that fact. We are not a 
company of Ministers seeking to help the brotherhood of 
Methodist Ministers to a comfortable support; we are a 
company of chosen leaders in the Church of God who are 
trying to help and inspire godly lajmen to fulfill their duty 
of furnishing a sufficient support of the entire Ministry. 

We need to understand that victory is not by might, nor 
by numbers, but "hy my Spirit, saith the Lord.'' 

The Rev. James Hamilton, D.D., of the Michigan Con- 
ference, led in prayer, and after the benediction by the Rev. 
J. B. Hingeley, D.D., the first Xational Convention in behalf 
of Retired Ministers adjourned without date. 

Camden^ X. J. M. E. Sxyder^ Secretary. 



CHOOSING THE BETTER PART 571 

CHOOSING THE BETTER PART 

The following was a Favorite Poem of the late Dr. Robert Forbes. 

They came through the meadows of Childhood together, hand in 

hand, 
And often they talked of the future that waited in Manhood's 

land: 
And one saw ever the glory that crowns the peaks of fame 
In that strange and mystical country to which no man giveth a 

name. 
"Up to the heights whose beauty lures me by night and by day 
I will sometimes find, my Comrade, with kindred souls, the way." 
And because his eyes turned ever to the heights, he could not see 
The beauty that was about him. Blind to it all was he! 

But the other saw all the flowers that grew by the paths they trod. 
He read on the hills and meadows the wordless poems of God; 
He saw the sin and sorrow that was round him everywhere; 
But he spoke kind words to a comrade and lightened his load of 

care, 
"Here's work for my hands, my Brother, I find it on every side. 
It may not be grand like a hero's, but I shall be satisfied 
If in the lives of others I bring some hope and some cheer, 
And feel that the world is better because of my being here." 

The ways that their feet had followed, parted in Manhood's land; 

And he whose eyes saw only the peaks far off and grand. 

Strove steadily onward toward them and paused not once by the 

way 
To help and comfort a comrade as sometimes the weakest may. 
He clambered up the hills and over their summit passed from 

sight. 
And to-day he lives in the glory that crowns those mystic 

heights. 
But no man's heart thrills warmly when another speaks his name. 
Ah! that soul hath need of pity that feeds on the husks of fame. 

But he who saw all about him work for his willing hands, 

Has done it faithfully, nobly, as by a King's commands. 

He helped the weak and the weary, he comforted those who 

mourn, 
And no man knoweth the number of burdens he has borne. 
He sang when his heart was heavy, songs full of hope and cheer; 
And his songs brought comfort and courage, and all were glad 

to hear, 
And men and women and children speak lovingly his name: 
Ah! happy is he that findeth that Love is better than fame. 



The Veteran's Gamp Fire. 

''The time of my departure is at hand. There is laid up for me a crown." 



J. B. HiNGELET. 



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The hosts of sin have felt my sword, Yea, to the Lord be thanks. 
The Eight - eous Judge will sure - ly give To those He calls "His own.'* 



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1. Min - is -ters of Je - sas, look-ing t'ward the west! 

2. Looking t'ward the sun-set, life will sweet-er be, 

3. Widows, too, and or - phans, we will not for - get; 

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Ye who love the Mas - ter, 

If God's loy - al peo - yle 

Hast -en, Christians, hast-en, 




com-fort give, and rest; With your lov - ing of-f 'rings, years of toil re-pay; 
yield glad min - is - try; With a will - ing spir - it, all their needs sup - ply; 

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From God's faith-ful serv - ants, sil - ver haired and old. 



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"Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength faileth. 
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4. For-sake thee not when thou art old? We hear the call; the church-es wake 






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Scatter the Flowers Now. 

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3. Show your love by word and deed, God wants each heart filled with glad - ness; 
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Copyright, 1910« by the Board of Couforence Claimaats. Chfcatro* 



THE SUN IS RISING, LET US GO 

At end of Love, at end of Life, 
At end of Hope, at end of Strife, 
At end of all we cling to so. 
The sun is setting. Must we go? 

At dawn of Love, at dawn of Life, 
At dawn of Peace that follows Strife, 
At dawn of all we long for so, 
The sun is rising. Let us go. 



FINIS 




INDEX 



Abingdon Press, 1, 6 
Accrued Liabilities, 160 
Adams, B. F., 328, 390 

C. M., 412 

J. W., 142 
Address and Appeal, Bishops', 5, 

317 
Advantages of Age, 125 
Advocates. (See under each title) 
Age. (See Old Age) 
Aged Ministers, 543 

Prayer, 575 

Printers, 240 
Agencies, 409, 429 
Agents, Annual Conference, 184, 
558, 559 

Publishing, 408 
Agnew, Dr., 151, 485 
Alabaster Boxes, 497 
Alden, John, 116, 402 
Ammunition Wagon, 563 
Anderson, James, 291 

Bishop, 295 

Justice, 333, 555 
Andrus, J. E., 328 
Annual Conference Agents, 184, 
558, 559 

Annuity Distribution, 472 

Endowments, 568 

Organizations, 558 

Responsibilities, 79 
Annuity Bond, Life, 277 
Annuity, Dependable, 343, 570 
Annuity Fund, Congregational, 
205, 210, 212 

Presbyterian, 174 

Protestant Episcoi)al, 158 



Annuity, Service, 80, 81 
Applegate, Stedman, 251, 290, 

420, 560 
Application Blank, Annuity Bond, 

278 
Apportionments, 421, 556 

Full, 563 
Arab Priest, Aged, 418 
Area Meetings, 344 
Armfield, W. E., 289 
Armour & Co., 240, 242 
Asbury, Bishop, 437, 446-448, 560 

Death, Anniversary of, 468 

Last Writing, 468 
Ashmore, William, 488 
Atlanta Constitution, 182 
Atmosphere, The New, 344 
Automatic Pensions, 156 

B 

Bachman, J. W., 493 

Baldwin, C. W., 328, 555, 559, 562 

Summerfield, 557 
Baltimore and Ohio R. R., 238, 567 
Baltimore Methodist, 548 
Bank Pensions, 245 
Banker's Investment, 279 
Baptist Church, 6, 195, 197, 558, 
562 

German, 198, 221 

Homes, 562 
Barnes, A. V., 138 
Bartol, Dr., 127 
Barzillai, 499 
Bashford, Bishop, 306 
Bass, A. C, 290, 454 
Batclu^or, A. D., 500 
Bauchop, F. IC, 292, 454 



577 



578 



IXDEX 



Beans, W. K., 292, 454 
Being Honest, 321 
Bells of Louvain, 18 
Benefits of Old Age, 26, 139, 222 
Bennett, H. C, 547 
Bequests, 84, 188 
B(Try, Bishop, 306, 320, 325, 560, 
562 

W. F., 57 
Best, E. S., 181 
Better Part, The, 571 
Biglow & Main, 29 
Bilbie, H. G., 476 
Birney, L. J., 31, 348, 562 
Bishops, 295, 323 
Bishops' Address and Api)eal, 5, 
296, 315, 319 

as Leaders, 318, 323 

at German town, 342 

at Washington, 564 

Invitation to, 564 

Pledges, 323 

Residential Areas, 562 

Thanks to, 557 
Bissell, J. W., 292, 4,54 
Blake, Edgar, 399 
Blind Girl, The, 550. 
Board of Conference Claimants, 

120, 328, 341, 473, 558 
Bonds, Life Annuity, 509 
Book Concern, 298, 442, 452, 556 
Booster, A, 547 
Borland, R. S., 290, 454 
Boswcll, C. M., 398 
Bovard, F. D., 398 

W. S., 401 
Bowles, S. M., 289 
Bristol, Bishop, 310 
British Government, 170 

Weekly, 446 
Bronson, E. H., 476 



Brown, C. C, 515 

G. W., 328 
Bruere, Martha B., 47 
Brummitt, Dan B., 390, 395 
Bucher, A. J., 393 
Buckley, J. M., 390, 426 
Budget, 564 

Building Good Foundations, 321 
Burt, Bishop, 295, 307 
Business Pensions, 147 
Butte Miner, 500 



Cain, J. ^\ ., 291 
California Advocate, 395 
Calkins, H. R., 445 
Call to Preach, 31, 560 
Camp Fire, Veterans', 572 
Campaign, 1915, 293 

Action of Board, 341 

Climax, 348 

Cooperative, 360, 385, 558 

Extensive, 387 

History, 339 

Illustrated, 503 

Inherent, 345 

Intensive, 383 

Leadership, 375 

Literature, 372 

Program, 379 

Supreme, 293 
Campbell, Marvin, 6, 79, 324, 424, 

427, 563, 565 
Canada, 81, 418 
Canham, W., 290 
Carnegie Foundation, 246, 475, 

485 
Cartwright, Peter, 438 
Cash Promises, 346 
Central Advocate, 39o 
Central New York Conference, 438 



IXDEX 



579 



Chambers, L. M., 555 
Chaplains, 66 
Charity, 5, 85, 111, 150 
Chartered Fund, 298, 413, 556 
Chicago and Northwestern R. R., 

239 
Chicago News, 260 
Childhood and Age, 139 
Children's Pensions, 139 
Christ Conquering, 325 
Christian Advocate, 138, 275, 389 
Christliche Apologete, 392 
Christmas Fund, 170, 216 
Christian Guardian, The, 536 
Chronicle, Halifax, 489 
Churches. (See under the several 

titles) 
Church 

Established, 334 

First Methodist, in America, 
459 

Honor, 329-332 

John Street, 455 

Obligation, 85 

Pension Fund, 161 

Program, 213, 225 

Saint George's, 461 

Strong, A, 537 
Circuit Rider, 4, 143, 533 
City, The, 36 
Civil War, 331 
Claim 

Foremost, 5, 147, 149, 231 

Inherent, 15, 348 

Supreme, 293, 299, 337, 348, 
435, 447 

Total, 118, 224 
Claimants. (See Conference 

Claimants) 
Claire, Peter, 290 
(^lemans, E. C, 324, 536, 557 



Clergy Relief, 558, 562 
Colhns, H. A., 279, 505 

John, 289, 424 
Colored Conferences, 560 
Congregational Church, 6, 205, 

206, 558, 565 
Connect !onal Permanent Fund, 

121 
Conner, W. F., 559 
Conquering Campaign, 325 
Constitution, Atlanta, 182 
Continent, The, 6, 103 
Continuing Liability, 160 
Contributions from Pastoral 

Charge-, 186, 421, 556 
Convention, 563 
Converse, T. E., 490 
Cooke, Bishop, 111, 295, 560 
Cooper, Ezekiel, 451, 556 

V. A., 122, 290, 403, 429, 559 
Cooperative Campaign, 367, 558, 

559 
Corporation Pensions, 241 
Courtesy, 557, 567 
Couldn't Be Done, 332 
Cragan, J. A., 292 
Cranston, Bishop, 295, 305, 318, 

321, 343, 553 
Crisis, Meeting a, 556 
Crowned Veterans, 194 
Crosby, Fanny, 29 
Crowned Veterans, 194 
Curtis, George William, 330 

D 

Day, J. R., 426 

Dean, W. H., 363, 560 

Debt of Nation to Ministry, 53, 

556 
Decker, E. L., 554 
l^eferred Payments, 467 



oSO 



IXDEX 



Deficiencies, 24, 76 
Demas, 32 
Denn}'-, Bishop, 193 
Denominational IMovements, 325 
Dependable Pension, 79, 565, 570 
Dickins, John, 451, 556 
Disability Pensions, 200, 219 
Disallowances, 45 
Disciples of Christ, 213 
Distribution, Methods of, 472 
District Superintendents, 367, 881 
Dividend 

Board of Conference Claimants, 
120 

Book Concern, 120, 442 

Chartered Fund, 120 
Dolliver, Senator, 546 
Dorion, E. C. E., 328, 383, 387, 

555, 557 
Downey, D. G., 390, 396 
DuBois, M. J., 270 
Durbin, Governor, 546 
Dutch Reformed Church, 6, 219 

E 

Early Retirement, 73, 108 
Eckman, G. P., 389, 390 
Economic Condition of Ministry, 

206 
Editors, 59, 389, 390 
Education, 109 
Edwards, Jonathan, 58 
Efficiency, Ministerial, 39, 49, 348, 

560 
Ein Wohlverdienter Lohn (A WeU 

Earned Reward), 355 
Embury, Bishop, 455 
Endowments, 83, 185, 192, 415, 

558 
England, 334 
Enyeart, T. J., 290 



Episcopal Address, 229, 301, 302, 
329 

Episcopal Areas, 559, 562, 564 

Episcopal Church, (See Protes- 
tant Episcopal Church) 

Episcopal Leadership, 318 

Ep worth Herald, 395 

Equity, 560 

Evans, M. E., 291 

Expenses, 563 



F 



Faces of Veterans, 194 

Facing the Sunset, 181, 574 

Fact, Story, and Song, 572 

Fairbanks, Vice-President, 545 

Families, Ministers', 61 

Family Affair, A, 388, 396 

Fellowship, Veterans of the Cro s, 
429, 434 

Ferguson, J. A., 291 
L. M., 557 

Financial Statement, Compara- 
tive, 217 

Financing Campaign, 557 

First National Bank, Chicago, 244 

Fitzgerald, Bishop O. P., 191 

Flowers, 124 

Forbes, Robert, 576 

Ford, Mr., 198 

Foremost Claim, 5, 147, 149 

Foreword, 5 

Forgotten Man, The, 539 

Forms— Wills, 266 

Life Annuity Bonds, 277, 278 

Foulkes, W. H., 6, 165, 259, 501, 
562, 567 

Foundations, 53, 321 

France, 114 

Frazer, W. H., 494 



INDEX 



581 



Frugality, 44 
Fulton, Dr., 481 

G 

Gabriel, C. H., 574 
General Clergy Relief, 154, 562 
General Conference, 5, 87, 340 
Genesee Conference, 425 
George's, Saint, 560 
German Baptists, 198, 221 

Conferences, 35', 353 

State Church, 532 
Germantown Meeting, 342 
Getting and. Spending, 275 
Gibson, J. B., 454 
Gilbert, Levi, 390, 392 
Giles, Charles, 438 
Gist of It, The, 224 
Give Them Flowers Now, 124 
Giving, Proportionate, 79 
God Is My Refuge, 302 
Golden Rule, 333 
Goldsmith, 102 

Government Pensioner, A, 251, 
466 

Pensions, 260 
Graham, E. R., 389, 408 
Grand Army of the Chui'ch, 546 
Gratitude, 86, 347 
Green, J. B., 420 

T. R., 291, 424 
Greenfield, S. J., 291, 415, 420, 

424, 526, 557, 558 
Greetings 

Bishops, 315 

Convention, 555 

Metropolitan Church, 555 

Other Chur(;hes, 558 

President Wilson, 317, 318, 555 
Group Meetings, 342, 559 
Growing Old, 125, 138 



Guardian, Christian, 536 
Guth, George, 289 

H 

Habit, Pension, 250 
Half Pay, 297 
Halifax Chronicle, 489 
Hall, W. A., 292 
Hamilton, Alexander, 427 

Bishop, 295, 306 

James, 328, 425. 557, 558, 570 
Hand, Vanished, 218 

Veteran's, 218 
Happy Man, The, 505 
Hard Luck Stories, 345 
Hardships, 111 
Hardy, Alpheus, 541 
Harland, Marion, 103 
Harper's Weekly, 330 
Harris, Corra, 143 
Harrup, F. W., 290 
Hart, B. H., 289 
Hartung, George, 291, 454 
HartweU, C. S., 247 
Hartzell, Bishop, 295 
Haus und Herd, 393 
Hebrew Economy, 149, 171 
Heck,. Barbara, 456 
Hedding, Bishop, 438 
Henderson, Bishop, 295, 310 
Henke, E. W., 291 
Henson, P. S., 545 
Hero Fund, 406 
Hewitt, Miss E. E., 497, 574 
Higgins, D. J., 134 
Hingeley, Ezra, 3 

J. B., 117, 225, 319, 324, 329, 
341, 379, 400, 555, 557, 55J, 
561, 564, 565, 568, 570 
Hints, Honiiletic, 479 
History, Campaign, 339 



582 



IXDEX 



Hitchcock, Elwin, 290, 413, 476, 

556 
HoUand, J. G., 37 

J. P., 339 

Pensions, 260 
Holmes, O. W., 125, 274 
Homes, Ministers', 153, 196, 223, 

562 
Homiletic Hints, 479 
Honor, 85 

Hopkins, G. F., 291, 424 
Horses Pensioned, 164, 275 
Horton, Judge, 6, 263, 324, 428 
Hoss, Bi hop, 192 
Hough, T. C, 526 
HoweU, D. W., 401, 530 
Hughes, Bishop, 295, 309 

J. S., 291, 461, 465, 476, 560 

R. H., 390, 394 

W. H., 292, 476 
Humphrey, U. G., 292, 420, 555 
"HjTnnal Fund," 154 



Illinois, Pensions, 256 
Illustrations, List of, 590 
Inauguration Convention. (See 

Washington Convention) 
Indian Summer, 193, 548 
Indiana Methodists, 82 

Pensions, 561 
Indianapolis Convention, 5, 299 
Industrial Pensions, 240 
Influence made Immortal, 262 
Inlierent Claims, 5, 348, 396 
Invitation to Bishops, 564 
Itinerancy, 73, 111 



Jacobs, H. L., 476, 554, 557-559 
James, J. H., 66 



Jennings, H. C, 388, 408 
Jewish Rabbis, 223 
Johns, Thomas, 290 
Johnston, Hugh, 289, 556 

J. W., 455, 560 
John Street Church, 455, 560 
Jones, R. E., 394 
Joy, J. R., 390 . 
Jubilee Gifts, 297, 323 
Justice, 85, 111, 189, 347, 429, 560 

K 
Kee - Tche - Me -Wah - Nah-Nah- 

Quod, 569 
Kecney, F. T, 19, 344, 435, 437, 

555-557, 559 

KeUey, C. A., 291, 346, 390, 420, 

557, 561 
W. v., 389, 390 
Kendrick, J. C, 290, 424 
Ken, Bishop, 78 
Kepler, G. W., 292, 420, 557, 500, 

566 
Key-men, The, 367 
King, C. A., 290 
Kipling, Rudyard, 528 
Koons, W. G., 292, 454 
Kortright Legacy, 69 
Krantz, John, 451, 453, 556 

L 

Larger Meaning, The, 568 
Larimore, T. B., 540 
Larkin, F. M., 390, 395 
Last IMile, 19, 556 
Lathrop, E. R., 66, 470 
Laymen, 5, 79, 345, 562 
Convention, 293, 299 
Layton, W, A., 557 
Leadership, 318, 323, 559 
Lee, Jesse, 447 
Leete, Bishop, 295, 312 
Left All, He, 551 



INDEX 



583 



Legal Titles, 289-292 
Lemcke, Henry, 289 
Lennox, L. E., 290, 454, 560 
Leonard, A. B., 397 

J. M., 290, 424, 554, 557, 561, 
565-567 
LesKe's, 164, 250 
Let Us Go, 576 
Levites, 479-481 
Lewis, Bishop, 309 
Lidstone, I. H., 53, 555-557 
Life Annuity Bonds, 84, 276, 405 
Light Brigade, The, 528 
Lights, White, 138 
Lincoln, President, 331 
Literature, 239, 378, 565, 566, 557 

for Agents, 566 

Resolution, 557 565 

Veteran Preacher, The, 566 
Little, C. J., 426 
Lloyd George, 549 
Loeppert, A. J., 355 
Lohn, Em Wohlverdienter, 355 
Longfellow, 26 
Loomis, S. L., 6, 207, 558 
Lorrman, Robert, 38 
Lost Magic, 18 
Louvain BeUs, 18 
Love's Recompense, 29 
Love Me Now, 540 
Loving Heart, Way of, 27 
Lowell, J. R., 495 
Luccock, Bishop, 295, 311 
Luther, Martin, 372 

M 

McClure, A. J. P., 6, 151, 486, 487, 

558, 562 
McConnell, Bishop, 39, 329, 312, 

320, 567 
McCormack, W. R., 292 



McCoy, Samuel, 28 
McDermond, C. H., 66 
McDoweU, Bishop, 295, 307, 319, 

324, 329, 331, 556, 557 
W. L., 555, 557, 564, 567 
Mcllvaine, J. H., 164 
Mclntyre, Bishop, 295, 304 
McKibben, Mrs. E. M., 542 
McKinley, WiUiam, 476 
McKnight, G. H., 491 
McRea, C. H., 406 
MacRossie, Allan, 557, 565, 567 
Madsen, H. K., 361 
Maddox, J. D., 418 
Mail, New York, 250 
Maine, 56 

Mains, G. P., 388, 408, 409, 556 
Man, The Happy, 418, 505 
Man and His Money, 445 
Manker, J. J., 395 
Marble, M. S., 328 
Marry? Should Ministers, 103 
MarshaU, W. K., 476 
Martin, Mrs. C. D., 575 

S. W., 575 
Mason, Thomas, 289, 558 
Massachusetts Old Age Pensions, 

257 
Matteson, W. B., 6, 195, 537, 562, 

567 
Mattison, Seth, 438 
Maveety, P. J., 298 
Mayer, John, 289, 424 
Meaning, The Larger, 568 
Merrill, Bishop, 303 
Methodist Advocate-Journal, 395 

Review, 389 
Methodist Episcopal Church, Part 

III, 488, 558 
Metho(hst Episcopal C h u r c h, 

South, 6, 183, 558, 562, 5()4 



INDEX 



Methodist Ministry, 70 
Methodism's Oldest Institution, 

413 
Metropolitan Church, 333, 555, 

567 
Meyer, H. H., 390, 391 
Michigan Advocate, 526 
Mile, The Second, 549 
Millar, Perry, 328 
Miller, C. W., 67, 558 

Henry, 289 

O. P., 291, 328 

R. T., 345 

W. H., 291, 454, 565 
MUls, E. M., 329, 554, 556 
Ministerial Annuities, 565 
Ministerial Pensions. (See Church 

Titles) 
Ministerial Sustentation and Re- 
lief, 180, 562 
Ministers, Aged, 28 

and Business, 118 

Childi-en, 25, 103 

Demands on, 69, 206 

Economic Condition, 206 

Educated, 109 

Efficiency, 39, 49, 348 

and Family, 35, 58, 61, 103 

and Horses, 64 

Moral Force, 56 

Prayer, 574 

Rewards, 68 

Seven Ages, 131 

Should They Marry? 103 

Sons, 546 

Wives, 35, 58, 61, 103, 536, 542 

Work, 105 

Young, 31, 203 
Ministry, Does It Pay? 135 
Missouri, 214 
Mite, Widow's, 497 



Money, Making, for God, 541 
Monuments, 110 

Montgomery, J. S., 554, 557, 567 
Moore, Bishop, 295, 305 

Stephen, 549 
More Excellent Way, 271 
Morse, S. A., 290, 369, 420, 557, 

558 
Mothers' Pensions, 251, 256, 259, 

560 
Movement, Opportune, 326, 327 
Mulfinger, J. A., 324, 428, 351 
Music, 573-576 

N 
NashviUe Advocate, 540 
Nast, A. J., 392 
National Board — Congregational, 

211 
National Hotel. 567 
National Monuments, 110 
Nation's Debt to the Ministry, 53 
Needs, 172 
Neely, Bishop, 295, 308, 365, 556, 

559 
Nelson, C. J., 289 
New Emphasis, 344, 347, 374 
New Orleans Picayune, 533 
New York City School Pensions, 

247 
Fire Department Pensions, 552 
New York Conference, 419 
New Zealand Churches, 222 

Pensions, 257 
News, Chicago, 260 
Nicholson, Thomas, 399 
Nickel for the Lord, 543 
Nickerson, M. E., 289 
Nineteen Fifteen Campaign. (See 

Campaign, 1915) 
Nominations, 556 



IXDEX 



585 



North American, 326 
North, C. J., 162, 291, 420 

F. M., 397, 426 
Northwestern Advocate, 393 
Northwestern Lines, 238 
Norton, M. B., 555 
Norwegian and Danish Confer- 
ences, 361 
Nuelsen, Bishop, 308, 353 
Nutter, J. H., 289 

O 

Oaten, C. R., 6, 554 
Obhgations to Ministry, 53, 193, 

202 
Obsolete Tales, 523 
Officers, 554 
Ohio Pensions, 256 
Old Age, Benefits of, 26, 139, 222 

Indian Summer, 548 

Pensions, 251, 256, 560 

Serene, 142 

and Youth, 139 
Old Man and Child, 139 
Oldham, Bishop, 397, 403 
Onesiphorus, 490 
Opinions of Public Men, 545 
Organizations — Retired Ministers, 

558 
Organized Christianity, 111 
Ox Muzzled, 482 



Pacific Advocate, 240, 394 

Packing Boxes, 542 

Page, Thomas Nelson, 89 

Palmer, A. J., 290 

Papers. (See titles) 

Parkin, F. P., 367, 557, 559, 560 

Parsons, W. A., 290 

Pastor, 36 



Pastoral Changes, 186, 421, 556 

Paul, 104, 490 

Paving Last Mile, 19 

Pay? Does the Ministry, 138 

Pay Roll, Unique, 232 

Payments Deferred, 467 

Pearce, L. A., 555 

Pennsylvania Lines, 6, 232, 233, 

494, 561 
Pensions, Bankers', 245 

Armour & Co., 240, 242 

Baptist, 195 

Canada Methodists, 418 

Carnegie, 246, 475 

Children's, 251 

CoUege, 246 

Congregational, 206, 212 

Corporations, 242, 244 

Dependable, 79 

Disciples', 213, 215 

Dutch Reformed, 210 

Fire Department, 552 

Fund, 161 

Government, 560, 561 

Habit, 250 

Holland, 260 

Ilhnois, 256 

Industrial, 240 

Methodist Episcopal, Part III 

Methodist Episcopal, South, 
183 

Mothers', 251, 256, 259, 560 

Ohio, 256 

Old Age, 251, 256, 560 

and ^Organized Christianity, 
111 

Presbyterian, 165, 488, 548 

Presbyterian, Southern, 175 

Printers', 240 

Protestant Episcopal, 151 

Railroads, 494, 551, 561 



586 



IXDEX 



Pensions, Reformed Church, 219 

Service, 67 

Teachers', 249 

Telephone and Telegraph, 240 

U. S., 260 

U. S. Steel, 240, 242 

Usefulness of, 207 
Pension or Salary, 43, 45 
Perfect Parson, 104 
Permanency of Religion, 115, 560 
Permanent Fund, 121 
Pet Me Now, 540 
Pew, J. O., 6, 241, 244, 328, 561 
Philadelphia Ledger, 256, 480, 482 

North American, 326 

Saint George's Church, 461 
Pierson, A. T., 89, 149, 479 
Pittsburgh Advocate, 391 
Pledges of Bishops, 300, 323, 342 
Piatt, Ward, 397 
Pope, W. H., 290, 424 
Post-Mortem Distribution of 

Wealth, 261 
Prayer for Clergy ReUef, 163 

Veterans', 496, 502 
Preacher, The, 14 

Circuit, 533 

Forgetful, 116, 402 

Old, 418 

Requisites of, 78 
Preachers and Teachers, 49 
President Wilson, 555 
Presbyterian Church, 5, 6, 165, 
169, 176, 488, 548, 562, 567, 
568 
Presbyterian Church of U. S. 
(Southern), 6, 175, 178, 565, 
567 
President, The, 150, 317, 555, 564 
Press, 327, 480 
Priest, Ai-ab, 418 



Printers' Pensions, 240 
Priscilla, 116, 402 
Pritchett, H. D., 48 
Problem and Its Solution, 555 
Program of Churches (see several 

titles), 225 
Prorating, 443 
Protestant Episcopal Church, 6, 

151, 558, 562 
Pruen, J. W., 289, 424 
Psalms, Modern, 496, 501 

Aged Saint, 496, 502 

Lonely Soul, 502 

Widowed Mother, 501 
Publicity, 179, 381 
Publishing Agents, 383, 389, 408 
Puffer, Isaac, 438 
Puritans, 54 

Q 

Quitting Too Soon, 534 

Quayle, Bishop, 13, 295, 308, 320 

R 

Rabbis, 223 

Race, J. IL, 389, 408 

Raihle, G., 291, 454 

Railroad Pensions, 6, 232, 233, 

238, 239, 551, 561 
Rates, Tables of Congregational 

Chm-ch, 174, 210, 212 
Presbyterian Church, 174 
Reformation, 62 

Reformed Church (Dutch), 6, 210 
ReUef, 169, 176, 197, 562 
ReHgion, 87 
Remsen, D. S., 274 
Renner, J. W., 6, 233, 238, 561 
Representatives, Conference, 289- 

292 
Requisites of the Preaclier, 78 



INDEX 



587 



Resolutions, Ammunition Wagon, 
563 

The Bishops, 557 

Bishop Neely, 559 

Campaign Expenses, 563 

Episcopal Areas, 562 

Full Apportionments, 563 

Literature, 565, 566 

Ministerial Budget, 564 

Other Churches, 562 

Veterans, 561 
Restored Rights, 437 
Retirement, Early, 73, 108 
''Retired Minister, The," 506, 

565 
Retired Ministers' Claim, 566 
Retiring Competency, 31, 39 
Reward, Well Earned, 355 
Rice, W. A., 6, 205, 211 

W. G., 476 
Rich, A. B., 557, 559 
Rights, Veterans', 437 
Riper Youth, 38 
Road of Loving Heart, 27 
Roberts, W. W., 292 
Robinson, Bishop, J. E., 314 

Bishop J. W., 314 

J. W., 291, 420 

Stuart, 117 
Rock River Conference, 346 
Roses, Rain of, 38 
Roosevelt, President, 545 
Round Robin, Bishops', 301 

Connect ional Officers, 388 
Rowe, James, 346 
Royal, T. F., 4, 550 
Rural Problems, 35, 201 

S 
Saddlebags, 4, 412, 550. 
Safe and kSane Wills, 274 



Saint George's Church, 461 

Salaries, 20, 43, 45, 259 

Sallenbach, Edward, 292 

Samoa, 27 

Sangster, M. E., 483 

Sargent, J. A., 290, 420, 557 

Saving vs. Efficiency, 43, 560 

Saxe, J. G., 493 

Scatter the Flowers, 574 

SchoUert, E. T., 291 

Schmalz, H., 292 

School Pensions, 246, 247 

Scott, Bishop, 295 

Scribner's, 89 

Serene Old Age, 142 

Sermonic Suggestions, 479 

Service, Reasons, 67 

Sesqui-Centennial Jubilee Gift, 

339 
Settled Pastors, 73 
Seven Ages of Ministers, 131 
Severts, H. H., 175, 479, 685 
Shafer, A. C, 291, 424 
Shepard, Bishop, 295, 310 
Shepherd, C. M., 290, 420 
Shepherd Who Watched, 89 
Sherburne, L. O., 476, 556, 557 
Sheridan, W. F., 400 
Simeon, 140 
Slease, W. D., 291, 375, 377, 

559 
Smith, Amzi, 23 

l^ishop, 295, 304 
Snyder, C. M., 291, 570 

M. E., 6, 318, 554 
Soliloquy, Old Preacher's, 515 
Songs, 573-576 
"Southern Methodist," 549 
Southern Methodist Church. (See 

Methodist Episcopal Church, 

South) 



588 



INDEX 



Southern Presbytenan Church. 

(See Presbyterian Church of 

the United States) 
Southwestern Advocate, 394 
Speak for Yourself, 402 
Spencer, C. B., 390, 393 
Springer, I. E., 66 
Square Deal, 183 
Steel Pensioners, 475 
Stephens, Robert, 290, 420, 557 
Stevens, E. M., 289 
Stewart, J. R., 6, 162, 183, 552, 

558, 562 
Stewardship, Christian, 83, 445 
Stewart, J. R., 6, 183, 552, 558, 

562 
Stevenson, R. L., 27 
Stone, G. M., 61 
Stop! Look! Listen! 117 
Story, The Cause in, 504, 572 
Stryker, Peter, 485, 487 
Summary, 568 
Sun is Rising, The, 576 
Sunday, Mr., 327 
Sunday Schools, 179 
Sunset Song, 181 
Superannuate, Stcry of, 525 
"Superannuated." (See Retired) 
Superannuates, Homes, 223 
New Zealand, 222 
Wesleyan, 222 
Superannuation, 23, 133, 143 
Supreme Claim, 5 
Sustentation, 166, 174 
Sweet, John, 289, 454 
Sweets, H. H., 6, 85, 175, 178, 565, 

567 
Syracuse, 438 



Task, Golden, 13 



Tables, Annuity Rates, Congrega- 
tional Church, 212 
German Conferences, 354 
Industrial Pensions, 240 
Mothers' Pensions, 259 
Presbyterian Church, 210 
Railroad Pensions, 238 
Teachers' Pensions, 249 

Talmage, Dr., 483 

Taylor, S. Earl, 396 

Teachers' Pensions, 47, 49, 249 

Telephone and Telegraph Co. 
Pensions. 240 

Thanks, Resolutions, 557 

Theater Endowment, 164 

Thirkield, Bishop, 295, 313 

Thomas, W. H., 26, 125 

Times, New York, 344 
Washington, 524 

Tiplady, Thomas, 139 

Tipple, E. S., 131 

Tithes, 479 

Total Claims, 118, 224 

Touch of Vanished Hand, 218 

Townsend, G. A., 533 

Transue, J. L., 349, 554, 556, 557 

Troland, 218 

Turrel, Parson, 274 

Two Men, 258, 332 

Typographical Union Pensions, 
240 

U 
Unique Pay Roll, 232 
Unity, 162 

Unthinking Layman, 339 
U. S. Steel Corporation, 240, 475 

V 

Van Cleve, J. W., 43, 324, 335, 

554, 555, 557, 560 
Van Dyke, Hemy, 110 



IXDEX 



589 



Van Treese, F. M., 292, 424 
Vanderbilt, 551 
Vanished Hand, 218 
Vera Cruz, Heroes, 150 
''Veteran Preacher," 6, 121, 373, 

374, 566 
Veterans' Camp Fire, 573 

Faces, 194 

God's Army, 182 

Hand, 218 
Veterans of the Cross, 122, 429, 
439, 497, 559 

Cooper, 122 
Veterans, Our, 526 

Rights Restored, 437 
Vice-President Fairbanks, 546 
Village Chapel, 549 

Clergyman, 102 
Vincent, Bishop, 305 
Voices, Silent, 303 

W 

Wagon, Ammunition, 563 
Walden, Bishop, 303 
Wallace, J. J., 391 
Wanted— Minister's Wife, 536 
Warman, Cy, 138 
Warren, Bishop, 262, 303 

W. R., 6, 213, 215 
Washington Convention, 5, 315, 
343, 553 

Times, 524 
Watchman, The, 549 
Watson, E. L., 339, 467, 560 
Way of Loving Heart, 27 
Webb, Captain, 457, 461 
Welch, B. F., 218 

Mildred, 27, 531 
Welcome and Response, 335, 337 
We'll Do It, 403 
Well Earned Reward, 355 



We Shall Win, 329, 556 

Wesley, 438, 455 

Wesleyans, 222 

West Ohio Conference, 346 

Western Advocate, 392 

What Churches Are Doing, 565 

Whatcoat, Bishop, 448 

White, O. A., 291 

White Gifts, 216 

White House, 317 

Whitman, 127 

Whittlesley, E., 475 

Williston, H., 291 

Who Forgets? 529 

Why a Service Pension? 558 

Why Do We Wait? 146 

Why Don't You Speak? 402 

Widow's Fund, 219 

Mite, 498 
Widowhood, 201, 502 
Wilding, G. S., 291, 454, 553 
William's Superannuation, 143 
Wills, 84, 188, 262, 263 

Better than, 274 

Horton, 263 

Make Influence Immortal, 213 

Notes on, 274 

Remsen, 274 

Uncertain, 460 
Wilson, Bishop A. W., 484 

Bishop Luther B., 295, 307 

Clarence True, 401 

President, 150, 317, 318, 555, 
564 
Win, We Shall, 329 
Wives, Ministers', 21, 64 
Wohlverdienter Lohn, Ein, 355 
Women's Societies, 179 
Work, Minister, 105 
Workmen, Two, 258 
Worn-Out Preachers, 191 



590 



IXDEX 



Worth It? 514 
Wortman, D., 6, 108, 219 
Wythe, J. H., 289 

Y 

Youker, J. C, 6, 554 
Young, Herman, 359, 5G0 

Minister, 181, 203, 545 

People, 113 



Adams, B. F., 390 
Anderson, Bishop, 295 

T. H., 333 
Andrus, J. E., 328 
Applegate, Stedman, 251, 420 



Yoimgstown Steel Co., 6, 244 
Youth and Age, 139 

Call to, 33 

Riper, 38 
Youth's Companion, 198, 408, 489 

Z 

Zaring, E. R., 390, 393 
Zimmerman, H., 292 
Zion's Herald, 383, 558 

ILLURTRATIONS 

Cooke, Bishop, 111, 295 
Cooper, V. A., 429 
Cranston, Bishop, 295, 321 
Crosby, Fanny, 29 
Crowned Veterans, 194 



Baldwin, C. W., 328 
Banker and Farmer, 279-288 
Bass, E. C, 454 
Bauchop, F. E., 454 
Beans, W. K., 454 
Berry, Bishop, 295, 325 
Bilbie, H. G., 476 
Birney, L. J., 31 
Bishops, 295 
Bissell, J. W., 454 
Borland, R. S., 454 
Bronson, E. H., 476 
Brown, C. C, 515 

G. W., 328 
Brummitt, D. B., 390 
Buckley, J. M., 390 
Burt, Bishop, 295 

Cain, J. W., 424 
Calkins, H. L., 445 
Campbell, Marvin, 79, 324 
Christmas Babe, 96 
Clemans, E. C, 324, 421 
Collins, H. A., 279, 505 
John, 424 



Dean, W. H., 363 
Dorion, E. C. E., 328, 383 
Downey, D. G., 390 

Eckman, G. P., 390 

Foulkes, W. H., 165, 501 

Gibson, J. B., 454 
Gilbert, Levi, 390 
Graham, E. R., 408 
Green, J. B., 420 

T. R., 424 
Greenfield, S. J., 415, 420 

Hamilton, Bishop, 295 

James, 328, 425 
Happy Man, 504 
Hartung, George, 454 
HartweU, C. S., 247 
Hartzell, Bishop, 295 
Henderson, Bishop, 295 
Higgins, D. J., 134 
Hingeley, Ezra, 3 

J. B., 117, 225, 324 
Hitchcock, Elwin, 413, 476 



IXDEX 



591 



Hopkins, G. F., 424 
Horton, O. H., 263, 324 
Hughes, Bishop, 295 

J. S., 461, 476 

R. H., 390 

W. H., 476 
Humphrey, U. G., 420 

Jacobs, H. L., 476 
James, J. H., 66 
Jennings, H. C., 408 
Johnston, J. W., 455 

Keeney, F. T., 19, 435 
KeUey, C. A., 420 

W. v., 390 
Kendrick, J. C, 424 
Kepler, G. W., 420 
Koons, W. G., 454 
Krantz, John, 451 

Larkin, F. M., 390 
Lathrop, E. R., 66, 476 
Leete, Bishop, 295 
Lennox, L. E., 454 
Leonard, J. M., 424 
Lidstone, I. H., 53 
Life Annuity Bond, 277 
Loomis, S. L., 207 
Luecock, Bishop, 295 

McClure, A. J. P., 151 
McConnell, Bishop, 39 
McDermond, C. H., 66 
McDowell, Bishop, 295, 324, 329 
Mclntyre, Bishop, 295 
McKinley, WiUiam, 476 
Madsen, H. K., 361 
Mains, G. P., 408, 409 
Marble, M. S., 328 
Marshall, W. K., 476 
Matteson, W. B., 195 



Mayer, John, 424 
Meyer, H. H., 390 
Millar, Perry, 328 
MiUer, C. W., 67 

O. P., 328 

W. H., 454 
Moore, Bishop, 295 
Morse, S. A., 369, 420 
Mulfinger, J. A., 324, 351 

Neely, Bishop, 295, 305 
North, C. J., 420 

Oldham, Bishop, 403 

Page, Thomas Nelson, 89 

Parkin, F. P., 367 

Pennsylvania Railroad Veterans, 

232 
Pew, J. O., 241, 328 
Pope, W. H., 424 
Pruen, J. W., 424 

Quayle, Bishop, 13, 295 

Race, J. H., 408 
Raihle, G., 454 
Renner, J. W., 233 
Rice, W. A., 205 

W. C., 476 
Robinson, J. W., 420 
Royal, T. F., 4, 550 

Saddlebags, 4, 412 
Sargent, J. A., 420 
Schafer, A. G., 424 
Scott, Bishop, 295 
Shepard, Bishop, 295 
Shepherd, C. M., 420 
Shepherd That Watchcnl, 100 
Sherburne, L. O., 476 
Slease, W. L., 375, 476 
Smith, Bishop, 295 



5'.) 2 



IXDEX 



Spencer, C. B., 390 
Springer, I. E., 66 
Stephens, Robert, 420 
Stewart, J. R., 162 
Stone, G. M., 61 
Sweet, John, 454 
Sweets, H. H., 85, 175 

Thirkield, Bishop, 295 
Thomas, W. H., 26, 125 
Tiplady, Thomas, 139 
Tipple, E. S., 131 
Transue, J. L., 349 



Van Cleve, J. W., 43, 324 
Van Treese, F. M., 424 

Warren, W. R., 213 
Watson, E. L., 467 
Wilding, G. C, 454 
Wilson, Bishop, 295 
Workmen, Two, 2.-8 
Wortman, Denis, 219 

'^'oung, Herman, 359 

Zaring, E. R., 390 



i 



^h^^ 



